zoo is a (public domain) file archiving tool for maintaining collections of files. It uses Lempel-Ziv-Welch compression to provide space savings in the range of 20% to 80%, depending on the files.
Unlike other archiving tools, zoo can store and selectively extract multiple generations of the same file. If files are added to an archive with the same pathname yet more recent date, the older version(s) will be retained (with a semicolon and version number, similar to file versioning in VMS) as the new file is added. This allows files that are frequently modified to be backed up in such a way as to allow access to previous versions (up to the version limit chosen) from one archive.
This project exists as a service to all computer archaeologists and acts as a focal point for patches and maintenance for the long haul.
zoo a save /bin/* # Create save.zoo from all files in /bin
zoo x save # Extract save.zoo with full paths in current directory
zoo x: save # Extract files in save.zoo to current directory
zoo l save # List contents of save.zoo
zoo was created by Rahul Dhesi, and originally posted to the USENET newsgroup comp.sources.misc. This version is based on v2.10 from Ibiblio, with all Debian patches applied.
zoo was placed in the public domain in 2004.