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I have a stuffit archive (.bin). I only have access to linux, how do I uncompress it?

  • File Roller claims the ability to uncompress the archive, but it is unable.
  • Wikipedia lists two resources to compress unstuff it on linux but one of the resources is 404ed and other is out of date.
ewwhite
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Ethan Heilman
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    A file with a .bin extension could be just about anything. Are you sure it's a StuffIt archive? – Michael Hampton Jul 11 '12 at 01:54
  • File Roller's site says it's a frontend to whatever other apps, so I assume it expects you to have one of those two resources installed to actually do the work. – DerfK Jul 11 '12 at 02:11
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    Server Fault is for professional system administrators and their questions as defined in the [FAQ](http://serverfault.com/faq) -- This question *might* be appropriate on [unix.se], but your best bet would be to contact StuffIt and ask if their Linux version is still available... – voretaq7 Jul 11 '12 at 02:43
  • @Michael Hampton - Apple's documentation lists it as a stuffIt file. – Ethan Heilman Jul 11 '12 at 03:14
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    @voretaq7 - The FAQ lists file recovery as a valid question and this question can be useful to other people recovering and transitioning old apple data to new linux systems. Given that this is a compression file recovery question I assumed it would be welcome here. If I had known it would get such a hostile response I would have asked it on a more friendly SE. – Ethan Heilman Jul 11 '12 at 03:15
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    @EthanHeilman No hostility intended, I'm sorry if it appears that way, but I (and 3 others) don't feel that this question is a good fit for the site based on our interpretations of the FAQ. If you would like to discuss the reasons behind that further please feel free to bring it up on [our meta site](http://meta.serverfault.com) - If the community concludes that the question is on-topic I've got no problem re-opening it. – voretaq7 Jul 11 '12 at 03:20
  • @voretaq The question has been answered and now other people attempting to work with old stuffIt archives who discover question will save some time so I'm happy with the way things turned out (no need to reopen). I will say that as someone that is active in two other SE sites (stackoverflow and crypto.SE) I am a little surprised at how many downvotes I got, and the general assumption that I was wrong and it wasn't really a stuffIt file, but perhaps serverfault just has a different culture or gets asked dumb questions more often. – Ethan Heilman Jul 11 '12 at 03:27
  • @EthanHeilman The information I asked for in my answer would have been helpful if it were in your original post. Sysadmins like context and as much information to work with as possible. For example, Cisco firewall OS updates are distributed in .bin files. Someone trying to figure out what to do with the file could easily be led to believe that the file was a Stuffit .bin file. The additional context around what you were trying to do would have eliminated that assumption and helped me focus on providing a better answer. – ewwhite Jul 11 '12 at 03:44

1 Answers1

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This is probably not a Stuffit archive. Usually, they have a .sit extension. Stuffit hasn't been in wide use since the early 2000's. Unless you're working with a really old file intended for a Macintosh, the chances that the file needs Stuffit Expander are slim.

You may actually just have a binary file with that extension. Try unzip on the file in question.

But can you provide more details like... What is the filename? Where did it come from? What is it intended for?

In linux, try the command file filename.bin - That should give you a (possibly) detailed description of the file type.

$ file phys113.sit
phys113.sit: StuffIt Archive

$ file ilo2_207.bin 
ilo2_207.bin: data

Edit:
This actually appears to be a Stuffit file. Download the Stuffit binary and decompression utility for Linux from here.

ewwhite
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  • I know it is a stuffit archive because I downloaded it from apple and it was listed as a stuffit archive. The file names are System_7.0.1.smi.bin, SSW_6.0.8-1.4MB_Disk1of2.sea.bin, SSW_6.0.8-1.4MB_Disk2of2.sea.bin. Unzip does not work. Downloaded from here http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.0.x/ – Ethan Heilman Jul 11 '12 at 03:08
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    Okay, yes... those are old-school Apple operating system disk images; binary-encoded Stuffit archives. You can download a [Stuffit executable for Linux from here](http://web.archive.org/web/20060205025441/http://www.stuffit.com/downloads/files/stuffit520.611linux-i386.tar.gz) – ewwhite Jul 11 '12 at 03:11
  • @EthanHeilman - holy crap, who'da thunk it – Mark Henderson Jul 11 '12 at 03:14
  • @ewwhite Wow, well done. I didn't now even consider that stuffIt for linux would be archived on the wayback. – Ethan Heilman Jul 11 '12 at 03:17
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    Actually, today on linux I think you can use unar from http://unarchiver.c3.cx/ It supports a fiendishly large number of formats. ;) – Marcus Jun 06 '16 at 08:11
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    On modern Debian/Ubuntu you can now use _unar_. Install using `sudo apt install unar` and then uncompress with `unar .sit` – Gibbsoft Jun 04 '19 at 15:22