G3FC Archiver Tool v1.1.3 - Enhanced File Management & Performance Binaries!

This is a major feature release for the G3FC Archiver Tool, focusing on powerful new file management capabilities, improved cross-platform compatibility, and the official release of high-performance, pre-compiled binaries! Version 1.1.3 transforms the G3FC tool from a simple archiver into a complete archive management utility.

✨ Key Features & Enhancements

This release introduces a full suite of command-line commands to interact with your archives, allowing you to unlock the full potential of the G3FC format.

• List Archive Contents (list): You can now instantly view the contents of any .g3fc file without extracting it. Use the --details flag to see a comprehensive view including file permissions, creation timestamps, uncompressed sizes, and CRC32 checksums for every file and directory.

• Find Files (find): Lost a file in a large archive? The new find command lets you search for files and directories by name. For more advanced searches, you can use the --regex flag to apply regular expressions, making it easier than ever to locate your data.

• Extract Single File (extract-single): This is a game-changer for efficiency. You no longer need to decompress an entire multi-gigabyte archive just to get one small file. The extract-single command can pinpoint and extract a specific file or directory, saving significant time and system resources.

• Export Metadata (info): For scripting and integration, the info command allows you to export the entire file index of an archive into a clean, human-readable JSON file. The exported data includes readable UUIDs, ISO 8601 formatted timestamps, and octal permissions for easy use in other applications.

• Cross-Implementation Compatibility: Major bug fixes have been implemented to ensure timestamps (.NET Ticks) and file permissions are handled consistently across all versions (C#, Python, Go, Rust), meaning an archive created with one tool can be reliably read by any other.

🚀 High-Performance Binaries

We are excited to release official, pre-compiled binaries for our fastest and most optimized versions. While the full-featured Python script remains available in the repository, these binaries offer superior performance for demanding tasks.

• Go: The most versatile option, with pre-compiled binaries available for a wide range of platforms and architectures.
• C#: A powerful and fully cross-platform version compatible with .NET 9.0 and higher.
• Rust: The most memory-optimized version, delivering incredible speed with the lowest memory footprint. Binaries are available for Windows and Linux, but you can compile the source code on your Mac.

📊 Performance Benchmarks

To showcase the power of the compiled versions, here are our benchmark results for compressing ~ 13,000 files (2 GB total) into a 1 GB archive using the default Zstandard compression level of 6 and file splitting.

Platform	Memory Usage (Peak)	Time to Complete
.NET 9.0	~4384 MB	~2 minutes
Go (Win)	~3316 MB	~1 minute
Go (Linux)	~2650 MB	~1 minute
Rust (Win)	~1100 MB	~1 minute
Rust (Linux)	~860 MB	~1 minute

Supported Architectures: x86, x64, ARM, ARM64

This release truly unlocks the power and flexibility of the G3FC format. We're excited to see how you use these new tools to streamline your data management and archiving workflows!

G3FC Archiver Tool v1.0.1

This is a maintenance release that introduces crucial security fixes and significantly expands platform support for the Go implementation.

📦 Executable Availability
Starting with this version, we are providing pre-compiled executables for the Go and C# implementations only. The Python version is fully functional and can be run directly from the source code available in our repository.

🚀 Expanded Platform Support for Go
The Go version of G3FC now supports a wider range of architectures and operating systems. The available binaries cover:

• darwin/amd64 (macOS, Intel)
• darwin/arm64 (macOS, Apple Silicon)
• linux/amd64
• linux/arm64
• linux/arm
• linux/386
• windows/386
• windows/amd64
• windows/arm64

🔒 Security Fixes
This patch addresses two important security vulnerabilities:

1. Path Traversal: Corrected an issue where a maliciously crafted archive could potentially write files outside of the intended extraction directory.
2. Decompression Bomb: Implemented safeguards to prevent denial-of-service attacks caused by archives that expand to an exceptionally large size.

Thank you for your continued support as we work to make G3FC even more secure and accessible.

G3FC Archiver Tool v1.0.0

G3FC 1.0: The Next-Generation Archive Format is Here!
This is it! We are thrilled to announce the official Version 1.0 of the G3FC Archiver Tool. This release marks the first stable, production-ready version of our next-generation file container, engineered from the ground up to deliver the speed, security, and resilience that modern data workflows demand.

Say goodbye to the limitations of legacy formats. G3FC is built to perform, protect, and persevere.

✨ What's Inside This Release
Version 1.0 is packed with a complete set of features that make G3FC the superior choice for any archiving task, from daily backups to long-term cold storage.

🚀 Core Features Implemented:
Blazing-Fast Zstandard (Zstd) Compression: Experience the power of modern, high-performance compression. G3FC uses Zstd to deliver significantly better compression ratios and faster speeds than traditional ZIP (Deflate) and Gzip, saving you time and storage space.

Bulletproof AES-256-GCM Encryption: Security is not an afterthought. We've implemented military-grade, authenticated encryption to ensure your data is not only confidential but also protected from tampering. Keys are derived using the robust PBKDF2 algorithm.

Unmatched Data Resilience:

• CRC32 Checksums: Every file's integrity is verified with a CRC32 checksum, ensuring your data is exactly as you saved it.
• Forward Error Correction (FEC): G3FC includes Reed-Solomon FEC to protect your archives against data degradation and bit rot, allowing for the recovery of corrupted data—a critical feature for long-term storage.

Intelligent Archive Handling:

• Built-in File Splitting: Effortlessly manage massive files. G3FC can automatically split large archives into smaller, more manageable chunks (.g3fc0, .g3fc1, etc.), perfect for transferring across networks or storing on filesystems with size limits.
• Instant Indexing: A smart footer at the end of the main .g3fc file allows the tool to locate the file index instantly, without needing to read the entire archive. This makes listing the contents of huge archives incredibly fast.
• Full Cross-Platform Support: G3FC is ready for any environment. The included binaries work seamlessly across Windows, macOS, and Linux.
• Open and Transparent: The entire format is open-source, with a detailed technical specification. No vendor lock-in, ever.

📦 Assets Included
This release includes pre-compiled command-line binaries for the following platforms:

• g3fc-windows-amd64.exe
• g3fc-linux-amd64
• g3fc-macos-amd64

The .NET version requires .NET Core 9.0 and can run on any platform.

Thank you for being part of this journey. We can't wait to see what you build with G3FC!