We usually archive our files using ZIP and RAR. But, did you know that these archived files can be turned into a self-extracting executable (SFX)? The intention for these tools is to easily produce installers for any software requiring multiple files, such as the main program and its dependent library modules. Embedded in the SFX archive is an SFX script. This script is responsible for instructing which directories the files are destined to be extracted to. This can be seen in the following diagram:
Usually, SFX have scripting features that can:
- Extract archived files
- Run a file from the extracted files
- Run any ...
