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:

1. Launch terminal application.
2. Install p7zip (optional, if not already installed).

   $ sudo apt update && sudo apt install --assume-yes p7zip #Ubuntu and Debian
   [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

3. Create folder where you want to extract the file onto (optional).

   $ mkdir target_directory

4. Go to the target directory where you want to extract the file onto (optional).

   cd target_directory

5. 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

6. View decompressed 7-zip archive.

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

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