Unable to extract .exe (7zip self extracting archive) using SevenZipExtractor

Question

Lib used: https://github.com/adoconnection/SevenZipExtractor

       var file = @"C:\Users\PC\Desktop\SelfExtractFile.exe";
       var destination = @"C:\Users\PC\Desktop\";

       using ( ArchiveFile archiveFile = new ArchiveFile(file))
       {
         archiveFile.Extract(destination, true);
       }

I get: : 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object.' archive and entries are null.

The library says it supports .exe.

Any idea how to fix this?

Answer 1

SevenZipExtractor library doesn't support self-extracting archive (SFX). It just supports extracting standard exe files.

But you can run self-extracting archive in a process in a silent mode:

   static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var file = @"c:\selfextracting.exe";
        var destination = @"C:\Users\PC\Desktop\";

        var output = ExtractSelfExtractingArchive(file, destination);

        Console.WriteLine(output);
    }

    private static string ExtractSelfExtractingArchive(string archiveFilePath, string destination)
    {
        try
        {
            Process process = new Process();
            process.StartInfo.FileName = archiveFilePath;
            process.StartInfo.Arguments = $" -o\"{destination}\" -y";
            process.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
            process.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
            process.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;

            process.Start();
            string output = process.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
            process.WaitForExit();

            return output;
        }
        catch (Exception exception)
        {

            return exception.Message;
        }
    }