LZEXE

File Format
Name	LZEXE
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Compression Executable compression LZEXE
Released	1989

LZEXE is an executable compression utility, developed by Fabrice Bellard. It compresses DOS .EXE files.

Identification

LZEXE-compressed files normally have ASCII "LZ09" or "LZ91" at offset 28.

As with most compressed executable formats, more-robust identification is possible, by looking for the characteristic decompression code.

Software

Compression:

• LZEXE v0.90 (1989-10-30) - French
  • lzexe_e.zip - v0.90 with documentation translated to English by Luigi M. Bianchi
• LZEXE v0.91 (1990-01-02) - French
  • lzexe91.zip - v0.91 with English-language supporting material by Luigi M. Bianchi and Earle Robinson
• LZEXE v0.91e (1990-10-15) (also here) - English
• "LZEXE v1.00a" by IS2 France Diffusion. Seems to be functionally identical to LZEXE 0.91.
• lzexeeng.zip - English translation of v0.91, unknown origin

Decompression, general:

• UNLZEXE - A widely-distributed open source utility, originally by Mitugu Kurizono (Kou). Versions "0.6" and above include patches by other authors, and might be unofficial.
  • v0.2 (1990-03-29)
  • v0.4 (1990-05-12)
  • v0.5 (1990-05-17)
  • v0.7
  • v0.8
  • https://github.com/mywave82/unlzexe - Modernized source code
• mz-explode
• Deark (with -m lzexe option)
• Rizzle

Decompression, for DOS:

• See Executable compression#Decompression software for some multi-format utilities that support LZEXE.
• UnLZEXE (archived) by Tenth Planet Software / Clive Turvey (for DOS)

Protectors (utilities that modify a compressed file to make it more difficult to identify and/or decompress):

• ANTI-UNLZEXE
• LZALT v0.03 by Codon Software
• LZEALT v1.04 by De Trans Software

Links

• LZEXE home page
• Reversing LZ91 from Commander Keen