ztools-cli

ztools-cli is a simple command‐line utility written in Rust for compressing and decompressing files and directories. It supports:

• Gzip (automatically handles single files vs. directories → .gz vs. .tar.gz)
• 7-Zip (creates/reports .7z archives)
• Intelligent naming and automatic handling of intermediate tarball steps
• Optional -f flag to override output base names
• Script execution (run custom scripts with arbitrary flags and arguments)

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Table of Contents

• ztools-cli
  • Table of Contents
  • Features
  • Prerequisites
  • Installation
  • Usage
    • Zip (Compress)
    • Unzip (Decompress)
    • Run (Execute Scripts)
  • Examples
  • License

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Features

• Automatically choose Gzip or 7-Zip

  • By default, zip uses Gzip unless --7z is explicitly provided.
  • unzip inspects the file’s magic header to decide Gzip vs. 7-Zip automatically.

• Smart handling of directories vs. files (Gzip)

  • When compressing a directory with Gzip, a .tar.gz is created.
  • When compressing a single file with Gzip, a .gz is created.

• Custom output base name

  • Pass -f <base> to override the output filename or folder:

    • For single files: output <base>.<orig_ext>.gz or <base>.7z
    • For directories: output <base>.tar.gz or <base>.7z

• Reversible and transparent decompression

  • Gzip single‐file archives (.gz) produce the original filename.
  • Gzip directory archives (.tar.gz, .tgz) and 7z archives extract into named folders.

• Script execution

  • run subcommand launches scripts from a configured directory, forwarding any flags or arguments.
  • Customizable script directory in ~/.config/ztools or default /etc/ztools/scripts/.

• Zero external dependencies at runtime

  • Everything is bundled as a standalone Rust binary (only requires glibc or equivalent on Unix).

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Prerequisites

• Rust & Cargo

  • Install via rustup.

  • Verify:

    rustc --version
    cargo --version

• (Optional) 7-Zip

  • Pure-Rust implementation used; no external 7z binary required.

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Installation

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/ztools.git
cd ztools
chmod +x ./install.sh
./install.sh

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Usage

Zip (Compress)

ztools zip <file-or-dir> [--gzip] [--7z] [-f <base>]

• Path to a file or directory to compress.

• --gzip Force Gzip compression (also the default if neither --gzip nor --7z is provided).

• --7z Use 7-Zip compression instead of Gzip.

• -f Override the output base name (no extension).

  • If the input is a single file, the output will be .<orig_ext>.gz for Gzip or .7z for 7-Zip.
  • If the input is a directory, the output will be .tar.gz for Gzip or .7z for 7-Zip.

Unzip (Decompress)

ztools unzip <archive-file> [-f <base>]

• Path to the archive file to decompress. Supported formats: .gz, .tar.gz, .tgz, .7z.

• -f Override the output base name (no extension or folder).

  • For a single-file Gzip archive (file.txt.gz), -f output will create output.txt.
  • For a directory archive (dir.tar.gz, .tgz, or .7z), -f output will extract into a folder named output/.

Run (Execute Scripts)

ztools run <script-name> -- [--flags] [--key value]

• <script-name>: the script file in the configured scripts directory.

• All following flags, options, and positional arguments are forwarded to the script.

• Example:

  ztools run test_script.sh -- --flag --name Alice foo bar

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Examples

# Compress a directory with gzip (default)
ztools zip mydir

# Compress a file with 7z
ztools zip sample.txt --7z -f archives/sample

# Extract a tar.gz with custom output folder
ztools unzip backup.tar.gz -f backup_folder

# Run a test script with flags and args
ztools run test_script.sh -- --flag --name Alice foo bar

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License

MIT © LowLevelLore (Mihir Patel)