Stop Using p7zip: Why You Should Switch to 7zz on Linux

Source: Dev.to

Why Switch from p7zip to 7zz

p7zip hasn’t seen a significant update since 2016. While it served the community well for years, the official 7‑Zip for Linux is now available and offers a modern, high‑performance alternative.

Issues with p7zip

• No modern instruction set support – The aging codebase can’t leverage AES‑NI, AVX2, or AVX‑512, even though most CPUs have had these features for years.
• Compatibility gaps – Archives created with newer compression methods may be difficult or impossible to open.
• Package manager defaults – Many package managers (and environments such as Pixi and Conda) still default to p7zip 16.02, perpetuating the problem.

What 7zz Brings

The official 7‑Zip releases now include a standalone binary called 7zz. It’s a single executable with no external dependencies, eliminating path headaches and version conflicts.

Performance Gains

• Hardware acceleration – Encryption and data operations run at the silicon level using AES‑NI and SIMD instructions.
• Superior multithreading – High‑core‑count CPUs are fully utilized.
• Refined algorithms – Years of micro‑optimizations to LZMA/LZMA2 dictionary searches translate into real‑world speed improvements.

Installation and Usage

If you’re using Pixi, Conda, or another package manager, install the modern 7zip package instead of p7zip.

# Install the modern 7zip package (example for apt)
sudo apt-get install 7zip

Using the Standalone Binary

# Avoid the legacy version
7z x archive.zip

# Use the modern standalone binary
7zz x archive.zip

Add an alias to keep using the familiar 7z command:

# Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
alias 7z='7zz'

Benchmarking

Run the built‑in benchmark to compare compression and decompression speeds on your hardware:

7zz b

Compare the results with your old p7zip installation—the numbers speak for themselves.