Uncompress bz2 file from command line on Windows

Is there any tool in the Windows command line that allows me to do this? Otherwise, is there any light and portable application that will allow me to?

Related question, can I rename .bz2 extension to .zip? Seems to work for WinRar.

3 Answers

Windows doesn't have native support for .bz2. 7-zip however is free and pretty light as well as featuring command line running. The command you need for it is:

7z x archive.bz2

The official bzip2 command line utility is available for Windows.

Installation:

1. Download and unpack the file bzip2-1.x.x-win-x64.zip for a 64 bit Windows, or bzip2-1.x.x-win-x86.zip for a 32 bit Windows.

2. Install msvcr120.dll according to the instructions:

   All binaries depend on the Visual Studio 2013 C Runtime Library (msvcr120.dll). This can be installed using the Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013 installer.

Adding on tanius's answer:

1.Download and unpack the file bzip2-1.x.x-win-x64.zip for a 64 bit Windows, or bzip2-1.x.x-win-x86.zip for a 32 bit Windows.

2. Install msvcr120.dll for v 1.06 and vcruntime140.dll for newer versions according to the instructions

If you're like me and don't know anything about vcruntime140.dll, I found this video helpful in helping me find out where it is / how to get it.