Extraction

Pull an inner item out of a container as a standalone file.

Sources

  • Archive entries (ZIP, tar [+ gz/bz2/xz/zst/lz4/br], 7-Zip, cpio, ar) — extract a single file by its inner path. Entries ≥ 16 MiB spool to a temporary file in $TMPDIR/peek-* (random- access reads without holding the whole payload in RAM); smaller entries stay in memory. The temp file is unlinked automatically when the extracted view is closed.
  • ISO entries (.iso) — zero-copy via a FileRange view over the backing image. No decompression, no buffering, multi-GB ISOs unaffected.
  • Email attachments (.eml) — extract a single MIME attachment by its inner path as a memory source that re-detects through the recursive-peek pipeline.
  • PDF embedded files (/EmbeddedFiles attachments) — extracted as a memory source.
  • PDF inline images — pages/page{N}/image{M}.{ext} pseudo-paths for image XObjects.
  • Audio embeds — pictures/<usage>.<ext> per visual, plus lyrics/lyrics.txt.
  • SQLite entities — <kind>/<name>.sql for an entity's CREATE … DDL, <kind>/<name>.csv for a table or view's contents (streamed SELECT *).
  • Spreadsheet sheets — <sheet>.csv streams one worksheet to CSV; raw ZIP-container paths extract the underlying workbook part.
  • Document & presentation embeds (DOCX / ODT / RTF / PPTX / PPTM / PPSX / ODP / Keynote) — extract an embedded image by its inner path.
  • Directory entries — resolve a listed child name against the directory path and hand back the file itself (.. walks up one level); the result re-detects like any other file.
  • Animation frames (.gif, .webp, animated SVG) — extract a single composited frame as a PNG at the source's native pixel size (sub-512px SVG scales up to 512 on the longest axis; override with --extract-size).

CLI

peek <file> --extract <KEY> [-o PATH]
  • <KEY> is an entry path for archives / ISOs / PDFs / audio, or a 1-based frame index for animations.
  • -o PATH overrides the suggested filename.
  • -o - (or piping stdout) streams raw bytes.

Adding --print or --info instead replaces the active source with the extracted item and runs the rest of the pipeline against it — recursive peek:

peek archive.zip --extract foo.py --print              # syntax-highlight the inner file
peek song.mp3 --extract pictures/front_cover.jpg --info  # info screen on the embedded cover

Viewer

In a listing TOC, e extracts the selected file. In an animation, e extracts the current frame. Either way, a status-line prompt opens prefilled with a suggested filename — Esc cancels, Enter writes. Path safety rejects traversal (..) before any TOC lookup.

DMG extract is intentionally unsupported — UDIF block decompression is a separate effort.

--no-tempfile

Pass --no-tempfile to force the archive extract path to keep payloads in RAM instead of spooling. This bypasses the safety cap that normally rejects a memory-only entry past 256 MiB, so use only when you'd rather risk OOM than touch $TMPDIR (read-only filesystem, exotic sandbox, etc.).