UNKEYBIF(1)

NAME
unkeybif - BioWare KEY/BIF archive extractor

SYNOPSIS
unkeybif [options] command file ...

DESCRIPTION
unkeybif extracts BioWare KEY/BIF archives, found in many BioWare games.

KEY and BIF files are fundamentally linked: a KEY file contains file names and types, while the BIF file contains the file data itself. At the same time, a KEY file can control several BIF files.

For example:

foo.key controls:
•   foo1.bif
•   foo2.bif
•   foo3.bif

foo.key indexes:
•   bar.are and bar.git from foo1.bif
•   qux.utc from foo2.bif
•   baz.txt from foo3.bif

If you want to extract all files indexed by foo.key, you need to also specify foo1.bif, foo2.bif and foo3.bif on the command. If foo3.bif is missing, baz.txt will not be extracted. However, listing file only requires the KEY.

OPTIONS
-h
- -help
    Show a help text and exit.
- -version
    Show version information and exit.
- -nwn2
    Alias file types according to Neverwinter Nights 2 rules.

    Neverwinter Nights 2 reuses a few file extension IDs differently than other BioWare games. To correctly read Neverwinter Nights 2 KEY/BIF archives, use this flag.
- -jade
    Alias file types according to Jade Empire rules.

    Jade Empire reuses a few file extension IDs differently than other BioWare games. To correctly read Jade Empire KEY/BIF archives, use this flag.
command
    l   List archive contents
    e   Extract files to current directory
file
    A KEY or a BIF file to read. Multiple KEY and BIF files can be specified; they'll be considered a unit.

EXAMPLES
List all files indexed by the KEY file chitin.key:

    $ unkeybif l chitin.key

Extract all files contained in data1.bif and data2.bif, that are indexed by chitin.key:

    $ unkeybif e chitin.key data1.bif data2.bif

SEE ALSO
More information about the xoreos project can be found on its website: https://xoreos.org/.

AUTHORS
This program is part of the xoreos-tools package, which in turn is part of the xoreos project, and was written by the xoreos team. Please see the AUTHORS file for details.