The Extract program supports command-line extraction of files from the cabinet (*.CAB) storage format on disk. Extract does not support any other compression system (that is, it is not backward-compatible with any previous Microsoft disk utilities).
The Extract program (EXTRACT.EXE) can be found in the Windows COMMAND directory, or on the Windows 95 disks.
Important
The information in this section is provided for use if your product support representative indicates that you should use the Extract program to extract a compressed file from the Windows 95 cabinet files.
In general, you should use the Add/Remove Programs or Network options in Control Panel to install applications and supporting software from the Windows 95 disks.
If system files are missing or damaged, run Windows 95 Setup from the Windows 95 disks (or network distribution source), and choose the option to validate and restore files.
Syntax
extract [/y] compressed_file [destination_file]
– Or –
extract [/y] [/A] [/D | /E] [/L location] cabinet_file [file_specification ...]
Parameters
/A
Process all files in a cabinet set, starting with the cabinet_file.
/D
Provide only a directory listing (do not extract).
/E
Force extraction.
/L location
Use the directory specified by location, instead of the current directory, as the default location to place extracted files.
/Y
Overwrite files in the destination without prompting. The default is to prompt the user if the destination file already exists, and allow one of the following:
compressed_file
This is a cabinet file that contains a single file (for example, FILE1.EX_, which contains FILE1.EXE). If destination_file is not specified, then the file is extracted and given its original name in the current directory.
destination_file
This can be either a relative path (.:, .., C:FILE1, and so on) or a fully qualified path. This can specify either a file (or files, if wildcards are included) or a directory. If a directory is specified, then the filename stored in the cabinet is used. Otherwise, destination_file is used as the complete filename for the extracted file.
cabinet_file
This is a cabinet file that contains two or more files. If no file_specification parameter is specified, then a list is displayed of the files in the cabinet. If one or more file_specification parameters are specified, then these are used to select the files to be extracted from the cabinet. Wildcards are allowed to specify multiple cabinets.
file_specification
This specifies files to be extracted from the cabinets. This can contain the ? and * wildcards. Multiple file_specification values can be supplied.
The following table provides some examples.
Command | Behavior |
extract filename.ex_ | Assuming filename.ex_ contains just the single file FILENAME.EXE, then filename.exe is extracted and placed in the current directory. |
extract filename.ex_ file2.exe | Assuming filename.ex_ contains just the single file filename.exe, then filename.exe is extracted and placed in the current directory in the file file2.exe. |
extract cabinet.1 | Assuming cabinet.1 contains multiple files, then a list of the files stored in that cabinet is displayed. |
extract cabinet.1 *.exe | Extracts all .EXE files from cabinet.1 and places them in the current directory. |