I installed 7-Zip with `sudo apt install 7zip`, but it only seems to provide the `7z` command rather than a program named `7zip`. Nothing appears in the application menu, search results, or right-click menu, and running `7zip` fails while `7z` works. I also tried `sudo apt install p7zip-full p7zip-rar` after reading a guide that suggested it would provide a graphical interface, but I still cannot find a GUI or an option to extract `.7z` files from my file manager. Did I install the wrong package, or is there a separate graphical application I need?
3 Answers
If you want a dedicated graphical archive program, install a frontend such as PeaZip, or use your desktop environment’s archive manager after adding its 7-Zip support. Alternatively, the Windows build can be run through Wine, but that is separate from the native Linux packages. For the command line, use commands such as `7z x archive.7z` to extract an archive.
The packages you installed are command-line tools, not a standalone graphical 7-Zip application. Their executable is called `7z`, which is why `7zip` is not found. Linux archive managers such as File Roller or your desktop environment’s archive utility can use the installed libraries to open `.7z` files, but the integration may need to be installed or enabled separately.
That makes sense for the command name, but my archive manager still does not show `.7z` as an option, so I may be missing the relevant integration package.
The Windows-style 7-Zip GUI is not what `7zip`, `p7zip-full`, or `p7zip-rar` install on most Linux distributions. You can verify what a package contains with `dpkg -L p7zip-full`; you should see programs such as `/usr/bin/7z` and `/usr/bin/7za`, rather than a desktop application. The online guide you followed appears to confuse the command-line package with a graphical frontend.
PeaZip is a separate graphical application, not just another name for `p7zip`. The latter supplies the archive-handling command-line tools that other programs may use.