Editors' Review
+With its inviting interface and powerful underpinnings, Pacifist for Mac enables you to extract only parts of archives as well as do partial installs of selected software package modules. This shareware app also features QuickLook integration that allows you to peek into an archive right from the Finder by pressing the space bar. The 15-second delay you have to endure while trialing the app can be quite annoying, though.
After a speedy installation, Pacifist for Mac asks you for permission to install a QuickLook plugin that enables you to peek into archives without unzipping them. The app opens with a quick tutorial on the different modes it has and presents you with the main window, which features a clean and accessible interface. You'll like the ability to scan for deleted applications and try to determine how the deleted app was installed and whether it's possible to reinstall it. While testing we found this feature to be fairly accurate, although it didn't detect the associated DMG file in one of the tests. In terms of transfer speed, the app is moderately fast, requiring about ten seconds to extract a 20MB file from a ZIP archive.
If you want complete control over what gets installed on your system, as well as the ability to unzip only parts of archives, you'll want Pacifist for Mac on your computer. Also, you may find it extremely useful if you have a data cap or slow Internet connection, since it lets you selectively download files from an archive hosted on the Web.
Editors' note: This is a review of the trial version of Pacifist for Mac 3.2.3.
Publisher's Description
+Pacifist is an application for Mac OS X that opens up .pkg installer packages, .dmg disk images, .zip, .tar, .tar.gz, .tar.bz2, .pax, and .xar archives, and more, and lets you install individual files out of them. This is useful if you need to install just one file out of a package instead of the entire package (for example, if you deleted your Preview application and need to reinstall it, but not the whole operating system), if you experience bugs in Installer.app that mess up your symbolic links, or if you just like a little more control over the installation process. Pacifist can open some archive formats over HTTP, in case you want to download only one file from a large .zip archive without downloading the whole file. Finally, Pacifist can examine the kernel extensions installed in your system to let you see what installer installed them, and whether the installer was made by Apple or a third-party.
What's new in this version:
- Fixed a bug that caused Pacifist to fail to open Java .jar files
- Fixed a bug that could cause Pacifist to incorrectly read a folder as an empty file in ZIP archives in rare cases
- Improved performance when extracting the entirety of a large archive (like the Yosemite installer)
- Fixed a bug that could cause modification dates of extracted folders to be incorrect
- Fixed a bug where closing the search results drawer manually by dragging it in could... See all new features »
