bsa-cli - a simple command-line interface for BSA files

bsa-cli is a command-line tool to perform some operations on BSA files, an archive format that is used by The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (and some other games). It may also work with BSA files of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, but this has not been tested yet. It will certainly not work with BSA files of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, because Morrowind uses a different BSA format, despite using the same file extension.

While this tool technically does not need a working installation of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, it needs BSA files to operate on, and those usually come with Skyrim (and also with some other games).

Usage

bsa-cli [OPTIONS] COMMAND BSA_FILE

options:
  --help     - displays this help message and quits
  -?         - same as --help
  --version  - displays the version of the program and quits
  -v         - same as --version
  COMMAND    - sets the command that shall be performed on the BSA
               file. Allowed commands are:

                   commands           - lists available commands
                   check-hashes       - checks hashes of files and directories
                                        in the archive
                   directories        - lists all directories in the archive
                   directory-metadata - shows metadata of the directories in
                                        the archive
                   extract-all        - extracts everything from the archive
                   extract-directory  - extracts a single directory from the
                                        archive
                   extract-file       - extracts a single file from the archive
                   file-metadata      - shows metadata of the files in the
                                        archive
                   help               - shows help for a command
                   info               - shows BSA header information
                   list               - lists all directories and files in the
                                        archive

               More commands may be added in the future.
               The command must be given in most cases.
  BSA_FILE   - set path to the BSA file to operate on to BSA_FILE.
               The BSA_FILE must be given in most cases.

Use 'bsa-cli help <command>' for more information on a specific command.

History of changes

A changelog is available in changelog.md.

Third-party libraries

Used third-party libraries and their copyright notices are listed in third-party.md.

Copyright and Licensing

Copyright 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 Dirk Stolle

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.