BFFextract

Simple Rust program to extract AIX BFF files.

Install

Cargo

To compile it from source you can just install it using cargo install.

cargo install bffextract

Binary download

Each release is available in compiled binary from Github. Linux build is using MUSL toolchain to make it work on older libc versions (e.g. CentOS 7) too.

https://github.com/ponchofiesta/bffextract-rs/releases

Usage

Extract content of BFF file (AIX Backup file format)

Usage: bffextract.exe [OPTIONS] <FILENAME> [FILE_LIST]...

Arguments:
  <FILENAME>      Path to BFF file.
  [FILE_LIST]...  Extract specific source file(s) and folders recursively only.

Options:
  -C, --chdir <CHDIR>            Extract to directory. [default: .]
  -A, --attributes <ATTRIBUTES>  Restore only specified file attributes.
                                 Possible values: p = permissions (unix only)
                                                  o = owners (unix only)
                                                  t = timestamps
                                  [default: t]
  -t, --list                     List content of BFF archive.
  -v, --verbose                  Displays details while extracting.
  -n, --numeric                  List numeric user and group IDs.
  -h, --help                     Print help
  -V, --version                  Print version

Limitations

• Checksum is not verified (archive and content files).
• Symlinks are unsupported. They are not part of the BFF file format, but of the liblpp.a file which is part of a install fileset.
• Bad file format may be ignored in some cases.

Credits

Based on:

• https://github.com/terorie/aix-bff-go
• https://github.com/ReFirmLabs/binwalk/blob/cddfede795971045d99422bd7a9676c8803ec5ee/src/binwalk/magic/archives#L226
• https://github.com/jtreml/firmware-mod-kit/blob/master/src/bff