How to extract 7z file in Linux

A 7-Zip file with the extension .7z is a compressed file format that can be extracted using p7zip tool in Linux. p7zip is available for most Linux systems and can easily be installed at the terminal. Once installed, 7-Zip files can then be extracted from the terminal or supporting GUI-based file explorer applications such as Nautilus for GNOME or Dolphin for KDE.

Extract 7-Zip file in Linux:

Launch terminal application.

Install p7zip (optional, if not already installed).

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install --assume-yes p7zip
[sudo] password for user:
##### snipped
Suggested packages:
  p7zip-full
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  p7zip
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 358 kB of archives.
After this operation, 996 kB of additional disk space will be used.
##### snipped

Create folder where you want to extract the file onto (optional).
```
$ mkdir target_directory
```
Go to the target directory where you want to extract the file onto (optional).
```
cd target_directory
```

Extract using p7zip command.

$ p7zip --decompress ~/archive.7z

7-Zip (a) [64] 16.02 : Copyright (c) 1999-2016 Igor Pavlov : 2016-05-21
p7zip Version 16.02 (locale=en_US.UTF-8,Utf16=on,HugeFiles=on,64 bits,1 CPU Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5287U CPU @ 2.90GHz (306D4),ASM,AES-NI)

Scanning the drive for archives:
1 file, 183 bytes (1 KiB)

Extracting archive: /home/user/archive.7z
--
Path = /home/user/archive.7z
Type = 7z
Physical Size = 183
Headers Size = 183
Solid = -
Blocks = 0

Everything is Ok

Folders: 3
Files: 4
Size:       0
Compressed: 183

Decompressing a 7-Zip archive will delete its original file. Please make a backup if required.

Common options for p7zip command:

$ p7zip --help
Usage: /usr/bin/p7zip [options] [--] [ name ... ]

Options:
    -c --stdout --to-stdout      output data to stdout
    -d --decompress --uncompress decompress file
    -f --force                   do not ask questions
    -k --keep                    keep original file
    -h --help                    print this help
    --                           treat subsequent arguments as file
                                 names, even if they start with a dash

View decompressed 7-zip archive.

$ ls -l
total 4
drwxrwxr-x 4 user user 4096 Jul 29 13:16 archive

Right click the file on Nautilus or Dolphin to extract the file from the GUI.

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