ACE (compressed file format): Difference between revisions

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Add information on Debian unace-nonfree and python acefile
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{{main|WinAce}}
[[WinAce]], maintained by e-merge GmbH, is used to compress and decompress ACE files under [[Microsoft Windows]]. When installed, it lets the user choose between paying for a registration or installing [[WhenU]] [[adware]]. e-merge GmbH also produces a [[Commandline ACE]] for DOS; and a freeware [[command-line]] decompression tool for [[Linux]] ([[Intel 80386|i386]]) and [[Mac OS X]] called "Unace". e-merge GmbH also provides several libraries for developers, including a freeware decompression [[Dynamic-link library|DLL]] called "UnACE.DLL". Some third-party archivers can read the format using this DLL. None of the above is [[open source]] [[free software]].
 
An older version of an Unace 1.2b is [[free software]] and licensed under the [[GNU General Public License|GPL]] by the author Marcel Lemke, but it cannot extract ACE archives from version 2.0 and newer.<ref>http://packages.debian.org/stable/utils/unace</ref>
 
On November 23, 2007, version 2.69 of WinACE was released, including a less intrusive [[adware]] application, MeMedia AdVantage, which replaces WhenU. No other major changes are in this release.
 
An older version of an Unace 1.2b is [[free software]] and licensed under the [[GNU General Public License|GPL]] by the author Marcel Lemke, but it cannot extract ACE archives from version 2.0 and newer.<ref>http://packages.debian.org/stable/utils/unace</ref>
A newer version of Unace 2.5 that supports ACE 2.0 archives is available as open source under a restrictive license, also by Marcel Lemke.<ref>https://packages.debian.org/stable/utils/unace-nonfree</ref>
 
==Third-party support==
''Packing'' of ACE files is licensed as proprietary information and only available through WinACE, while ''unpacking'' of ACE files is supported by a number of [[Comparison_of_file_archivers#Archive_format_support|third-party archivers]]. However, virtually all of them (the ones that support ACE 2.x format) do this by using the proprietary "Unace.dll" from e-merge GmbH. Since 2017, there is a [[BSD_licenses|BSD licensed]] python module that supports unpacking of ACE 2.x format archives.<ref>https://pypi.python.org/pypi/acefile</ref>
 
==See also==