38c0898bc2
New library (uc2_preprocess.h / uc2_preprocess.c) for Phase 4:
BCJ (Branch/Call/Jump) filter:
- E8/E9 x86 address normalization (relative → absolute)
- Makes calls to the same function from different locations produce
identical byte sequences, improving LZ77 matching
- Round-trip verified; address normalization confirmed
BWT (Burrows-Wheeler Transform):
- Suffix-array-based forward transform
- LF-mapping inverse with reverse reconstruction
- Groups similar contexts for better entropy coding
- Round-trip verified for text ("banana") and binary data
Delta filter:
- Byte-wise delta encoding with configurable stride
- Stride 1 for sequential data, stride 2+ for interleaved channels
- Constant-delta sequences (arithmetic progressions) reduce to
repeated single values
Content detection:
- Automatic content type identification (text/x86/structured/binary)
- MZ/PE and ELF header recognition for x86
- Printable ASCII ratio for text detection
11 unit tests covering all filters and detection.
UC2 v3.0.0 — UltraCompressor II
A cross-platform revival of UltraCompressor II, the DOS-era archiver by Nico de Vries (1992--1996). UC2 was notable for its advanced deduplication ("master blocks"), file versioning, and competitive compression ratios on the hardware of its day.
This project brings UC2 back as a modern, portable C99 tool. Phase 1 (current) provides decompression and archive listing, built on Jan Bobrowski's clean-room portable decompressor (unuc2/libunuc2). Phase 2 will add compression using the original algorithms.
Building
Requires CMake >= 3.16 and a C99 compiler (GCC, Clang, or MSVC).
cmake -B build
cmake --build build
The binary is at build/cli/uc2.
Usage
uc2 archive.uc2 # Extract all files
uc2 -l archive.uc2 # List contents
uc2 -t archive.uc2 # Test archive integrity
uc2 -d /tmp/out archive.uc2 # Extract to directory
uc2 -l archive.uc2 '*.txt' # List matching files
uc2 -p archive.uc2 readme.txt # Extract to stdout
Options
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
-l |
List archive contents |
-t |
Test archive integrity |
-a |
Include all file versions (not just latest) |
-d path |
Extract to specified directory |
-f |
Overwrite existing files |
-p |
Extract to stdout |
-D |
Skip directory metadata; -DD also skips file metadata |
-T |
Tab-separated output (for scripting) |
Project Structure
UC2/
lib/ libuc2 decompression library
cli/ uc2 command-line tool
original/ preserved original sources (reference only)
cmake/ build system modules
tests/ test archives and test programs
History
- v1.0--v2.3 (1992--1996) Original DOS releases by Nico de Vries
- 2015 Source code released under LGPL-3.0 by Danny Bezemer
- 2020--2021 Jan Bobrowski writes unuc2/libunuc2 (portable decompressor)
- 2026 UC2 v3.0.0: cross-platform revival
License
GPL-3.0. See LICENSE and CREDITS.md for full attribution.