Zoo (file format)

Infobox file format
name = zoo
extension = .zoo
mime =
owner =
creatorcode =
genre = data compression
containerfor =
containedby =
extendedfrom =
extendedto =

zoo is a compression program and format developed by Rahul Dhesi in the mid 1980s. The format is based on the LZW compression algorithm and compressed files are identified by the .zoo file extension. It is no longer widely used. Program source code was originally published on the comp.sources.misc Usenet newsgroup, and was compatible with a variety of Unix-like operating systems. Binaries were also published for the MS-DOS user community. A small companion program was also developed, entitled booz, that provides only decompression functionality.

The .ZOO file format was mostly popular with Digital (now Hewlett Packard) VAX computers running the OpenVMS operating system, and for a time with the Commodore Amiga community.

Technical Specification

A .ZOO archive begins with a 34-byte header field, as follows

Other uses

The file format .zoo are also saved zoos for Microsoft's Zoo Tycoon PC game.

External links

* [http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/utils/compress/zoo-2.10-3.src.rpm zoo 2.10 source]
* [http://archives.math.utk.edu/software/multi-platform/gap/util/ unzoo] - zoo archive extractor, source included