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I have a stuffit archive (.bin). I only have access to linux, how do I uncompress it?

  • File Roller claims the ability to uncompress the archive, but it is unable.
  • Wikipedia lists two resources to compress unstuff it on linux but one of the resources is 404ed and other is out of date.
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    A file with a .bin extension could be just about anything. Are you sure it's a StuffIt archive?
    – Michael Hampton
    Jul 11, 2012 at 1:54
  • File Roller's site says it's a frontend to whatever other apps, so I assume it expects you to have one of those two resources installed to actually do the work.
    – DerfK
    Jul 11, 2012 at 2:11
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    Server Fault is for professional system administrators and their questions as defined in the FAQ -- This question might be appropriate on Unix & Linux, but your best bet would be to contact StuffIt and ask if their Linux version is still available...
    – voretaq7
    Jul 11, 2012 at 2:43
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    @voretaq7 - The FAQ lists file recovery as a valid question and this question can be useful to other people recovering and transitioning old apple data to new linux systems. Given that this is a compression file recovery question I assumed it would be welcome here. If I had known it would get such a hostile response I would have asked it on a more friendly SE.
    – Ethan Heilman
    Jul 11, 2012 at 3:15
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    @EthanHeilman No hostility intended, I'm sorry if it appears that way, but I (and 3 others) don't feel that this question is a good fit for the site based on our interpretations of the FAQ. If you would like to discuss the reasons behind that further please feel free to bring it up on our meta site - If the community concludes that the question is on-topic I've got no problem re-opening it.
    – voretaq7
    Jul 11, 2012 at 3:20

1 Answer 1

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This is probably not a Stuffit archive. Usually, they have a .sit extension. Stuffit hasn't been in wide use since the early 2000's. Unless you're working with a really old file intended for a Macintosh, the chances that the file needs Stuffit Expander are slim.

You may actually just have a binary file with that extension. Try unzip on the file in question.

But can you provide more details like... What is the filename? Where did it come from? What is it intended for?

In linux, try the command file filename.bin - That should give you a (possibly) detailed description of the file type.

$ file phys113.sit
phys113.sit: StuffIt Archive

$ file ilo2_207.bin 
ilo2_207.bin: data

Edit:
This actually appears to be a Stuffit file. Download the Stuffit binary and decompression utility for Linux from here.

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    I know it is a stuffit archive because I downloaded it from apple and it was listed as a stuffit archive. The file names are System_7.0.1.smi.bin, SSW_6.0.8-1.4MB_Disk1of2.sea.bin, SSW_6.0.8-1.4MB_Disk2of2.sea.bin. Unzip does not work. Downloaded from here download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/…
    – Ethan Heilman
    Jul 11, 2012 at 3:08
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    Okay, yes... those are old-school Apple operating system disk images; binary-encoded Stuffit archives. You can download a Stuffit executable for Linux from here
    – ewwhite
    Jul 11, 2012 at 3:11
  • @EthanHeilman - holy crap, who'da thunk it
    – Mark Henderson
    Jul 11, 2012 at 3:14
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    Actually, today on linux I think you can use unar from unarchiver.c3.cx It supports a fiendishly large number of formats. ;)
    – Marcus
    Jun 6, 2016 at 8:11
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    On modern Debian/Ubuntu you can now use unar. Install using sudo apt install unar and then uncompress with unar <archive file name>.sit
    – Gibbsoft
    Jun 4, 2019 at 15:22

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