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Getting SQZ

SQZ is two small command-line programs, sqz and sqz-extract, plus an optional right-click menu on Windows and the SQZ Backup desktop app. Download a ready-made build below, or build it from source.

Which download do I need?#

There are three downloads, one for each job. You only need one per computer. All are free for personal use under the PolyForm Noncommercial licence; business use needs a commercial licence (hello@hanki.tools).

You want to…	Download	What it is
Back up your folders on a schedule, and see and restore old versions	SQZ Backup app (Windows or macOS)	A desktop app for encrypted, scheduled backups. It includes its own `sqz`. See Desktop app.
Compress files and folders into `.sqz` archives, and extract them	SQZ for Windows (`sqz-windows-x64.zip`)	The Windows right-click menu and the `sqz` command line. See Windows right-click menu.
Open a `.sqz` file someone sent you	sqz-extract (Windows, Linux or macOS)	A small program that can only extract, test and list archives. See Sharing archives.

Download#

SQZ Backup desktop app#

System	Download	What you get	Size
Windows 10 / 11, 64-bit	sqz-backup-windows-x64-setup.exe	The app installer, with `sqz` inside	3.8 MB
macOS Apple Silicon	sqz-backup-macos-arm64.dmg	The app as a disk image, with `sqz` inside	5.1 MB

Version 0.1.0 from 30 September 2026 (commit 00b73bd), an early preview. See Desktop app.

Command-line tools#

System	Download	What you get	Size
Windows 10 / 11, 64-bit	sqz-windows-x64.zip	The full package: `sqz.exe`, `sqz-extract.exe` and the right-click menu, with `install.cmd`	3.4 MB
Windows, extractor only	sqz-extract-windows-x64.zip	`sqz-extract.exe` on its own, to send with an archive	0.8 MB
Linux x86-64	sqz-extract-linux-x64.tar.gz	`sqz-extract`: opens, tests and lists archives	1.0 MB
macOS Apple Silicon	sqz-extract-macos-arm64.tar.gz	`sqz-extract`: opens, tests and lists archives	0.8 MB

Development build from 30 September 2026 (commit 50a99b1), the same files the project's automated tests passed. Checksums: SHA256SUMS.txt.

Linux and macOS

For now the ready-made Linux and macOS command-line downloads are the extractor only: they open, test and list archives but cannot create them. A full sqz download for those systems will follow. The Linux build needs glibc 2.34 or newer (Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, Fedora 35 or later); the macOS build needs macOS 11 or newer on Apple Silicon.

Unsigned preview builds

These builds are not code-signed yet, so your system may warn the first time:

Windows: if SmartScreen says "Windows protected your PC", choose More info › Run anyway.
macOS: open the SQZ Backup app the first time with right-click, Open. For sqz-extract, after unpacking, run xattr -d com.apple.quarantine sqz-extract once, or allow it under System Settings › Privacy & Security.

Check a download against SHA256SUMS.txt with sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS.txt (Linux), shasum -a 256 FILE (macOS) or Get-FileHash FILE (PowerShell).

Install#

Windows#

Unzip sqz-windows-x64.zip anywhere and double-click install.cmd. It copies SQZ to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\SQZ and adds the right-click menu for your user only, without admin rights. See Windows right-click menu.

Linux and macOS#

tar -xzf sqz-extract-linux-x64.tar.gz      # or sqz-extract-macos-arm64.tar.gz
./sqz-extract --version
sudo mv sqz-extract /usr/local/bin/        # optional: use it from anywhere

What there is#

Program	What it does
`sqz`	The full tool: create, extract, test, list and export archives, estimates, benchmarks, and `sqz backup`.
`sqz-extract`	A separate program that can only open archives. Give it to people you send archives to. See Sharing archives.
SQZ Backup	The desktop app for scheduled backups on Windows and macOS, with `sqz` inside. See Desktop app.
Windows package	`sqz.exe`, `sqz-extract.exe`, the Explorer menu and `install.cmd` / `uninstall.cmd`. See Windows right-click menu.

Build from source#

For contributors with access to the source, which is not public yet. You need Rust 1.85 or newer and a C++17 compiler (SQZ's context-mixing engine is written in C++).

Windows: install Visual Studio Build Tools with the Desktop development with C++ workload, then Rust's MSVC toolchain.
Linux: a recent GCC or Clang and Rust from rustup.
macOS: the Xcode command-line tools and Rust from rustup.

From the source folder:

cargo test --locked --release
cargo build --locked --release

The programs land in target/release/: sqz, sqz-extract and sqz-bench (with .exe on Windows). Cargo.lock is included, and --locked makes the build use exactly the pinned dependency versions.

Check that it works#

sqz
sqz-extract --version

sqz with no arguments prints its help. sqz-extract --version prints the archive format versions and features it can read.

System requirements#

64-bit Windows, Linux or macOS.
Memory depends on the mode and the number of threads, not on how much you pack. Fast needs little; Balanced, Smart and Max used 1.6 to 1.9 GB on 4 threads in our measurements, and Max's engine uses about 260 MB per thread. Use -j to use fewer threads, and sqz estimate to see the figure for your data first.
Extraction needs a destination drive that supports hard links (NTFS, APFS, ext4 and most other modern file systems do; FAT32 and exFAT do not). See Known limits.