LHA (LHarc, LZH) is a file format used by a popular freeware eponymous archiver, created in 1988 by Haruyasu Yoshizaki. Over the years, many ports and implementations were developed, sporting many extensions to original 1988 LZH.
File format is pretty simple and essentially consists of a stream of records.
This page hosts a formal specification of .lzh file format of LHA (AKA LHarc) by Yoshizaki Haruyasu using Kaitai Struct. This specification can be automatically translated into a variety of programming languages to get a parsing library.
digraph {
rankdir=LR;
node [shape=plaintext];
subgraph cluster__lzh {
label="Lzh";
graph[style=dotted];
lzh__seq [label=<<TABLE BORDER="0" CELLBORDER="1" CELLSPACING="0">
<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">pos</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">size</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">type</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">id</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="entries_pos">0</TD><TD PORT="entries_size">...</TD><TD>Record</TD><TD PORT="entries_type">entries</TD></TR>
<TR><TD COLSPAN="4" PORT="entries__repeat">repeat to end of stream</TD></TR>
</TABLE>>];
subgraph cluster__record {
label="Lzh::Record";
graph[style=dotted];
record__seq [label=<<TABLE BORDER="0" CELLBORDER="1" CELLSPACING="0">
<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">pos</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">size</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">type</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">id</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="header_len_pos">0</TD><TD PORT="header_len_size">1</TD><TD>u1</TD><TD PORT="header_len_type">header_len</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="file_record_pos">1</TD><TD PORT="file_record_size">...</TD><TD>FileRecord</TD><TD PORT="file_record_type">file_record</TD></TR>
</TABLE>>];
}
subgraph cluster__file_record {
label="Lzh::FileRecord";
graph[style=dotted];
file_record__seq [label=<<TABLE BORDER="0" CELLBORDER="1" CELLSPACING="0">
<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">pos</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">size</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">type</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">id</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="header_pos">0</TD><TD PORT="header_size">(_parent.header_len - 1)</TD><TD>Header</TD><TD PORT="header_type">header</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="file_uncompr_crc16_pos">...</TD><TD PORT="file_uncompr_crc16_size">2</TD><TD>u2le</TD><TD PORT="file_uncompr_crc16_type">file_uncompr_crc16</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="body_pos">...</TD><TD PORT="body_size">header.header1.file_size_compr</TD><TD></TD><TD PORT="body_type">body</TD></TR>
</TABLE>>];
}
subgraph cluster__header {
label="Lzh::Header";
graph[style=dotted];
header__seq [label=<<TABLE BORDER="0" CELLBORDER="1" CELLSPACING="0">
<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">pos</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">size</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">type</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">id</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="header1_pos">0</TD><TD PORT="header1_size">20</TD><TD>Header1</TD><TD PORT="header1_type">header1</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="filename_len_pos">20</TD><TD PORT="filename_len_size">1</TD><TD>u1</TD><TD PORT="filename_len_type">filename_len</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="filename_pos">21</TD><TD PORT="filename_size">filename_len</TD><TD>str(ASCII)</TD><TD PORT="filename_type">filename</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="file_uncompr_crc16_pos">...</TD><TD PORT="file_uncompr_crc16_size">2</TD><TD>u2le</TD><TD PORT="file_uncompr_crc16_type">file_uncompr_crc16</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="os_pos">...</TD><TD PORT="os_size">1</TD><TD>u1</TD><TD PORT="os_type">os</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="ext_header_size_pos">...</TD><TD PORT="ext_header_size_size">2</TD><TD>u2le</TD><TD PORT="ext_header_size_type">ext_header_size</TD></TR>
</TABLE>>];
}
subgraph cluster__header1 {
label="Lzh::Header1";
graph[style=dotted];
header1__seq [label=<<TABLE BORDER="0" CELLBORDER="1" CELLSPACING="0">
<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">pos</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">size</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">type</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">id</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="header_checksum_pos">0</TD><TD PORT="header_checksum_size">1</TD><TD>u1</TD><TD PORT="header_checksum_type">header_checksum</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="method_id_pos">1</TD><TD PORT="method_id_size">5</TD><TD>str(ASCII)</TD><TD PORT="method_id_type">method_id</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="file_size_compr_pos">6</TD><TD PORT="file_size_compr_size">4</TD><TD>u4le</TD><TD PORT="file_size_compr_type">file_size_compr</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="file_size_uncompr_pos">10</TD><TD PORT="file_size_uncompr_size">4</TD><TD>u4le</TD><TD PORT="file_size_uncompr_type">file_size_uncompr</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="file_timestamp_pos">14</TD><TD PORT="file_timestamp_size">4</TD><TD>DosDatetime</TD><TD PORT="file_timestamp_type">file_timestamp</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="attr_pos">18</TD><TD PORT="attr_size">1</TD><TD>u1</TD><TD PORT="attr_type">attr</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="lha_level_pos">19</TD><TD PORT="lha_level_size">1</TD><TD>u1</TD><TD PORT="lha_level_type">lha_level</TD></TR>
</TABLE>>];
}
}
lzh__seq:entries_type -> record__seq [style=bold];
record__seq:file_record_type -> file_record__seq [style=bold];
record__seq:header_len_type -> file_record__seq:header_size [color="#404040"];
file_record__seq:header_type -> header__seq [style=bold];
header1__seq:file_size_compr_type -> file_record__seq:body_size [color="#404040"];
header__seq:header1_type -> header1__seq [style=bold];
header__seq:filename_len_type -> header__seq:filename_size [color="#404040"];
header1__seq:file_timestamp_type -> dos_datetime__seq [style=bold];
}