ps3pkgtool

Fast command-line tool for PS3 .pkg files: extract, create, split and join. One C file, no dependencies, runs on Windows, Linux and macOS.

Written as a faster, scriptable replacement for GUI extractors: decryption is spread across all CPU cores and retail packages use AES-NI when the CPU has it.

Status: the PC side (create → extract round trips, split → join) is covered by the test suite. Packages produced by create have not yet been verified on a real console. Try a small one before trusting it with a big game.

Download

Grab a build from the Releases page, or build it yourself:

# Linux / macOS
cc -O2 ps3pkgtool.c -o ps3pkgtool -lpthread

# Windows (mingw-w64)
gcc -O2 -static ps3pkgtool.c -o ps3pkgtool.exe -lshell32

make test runs the round-trip tests.

Usage

ps3pkgtool info    <file.pkg>                    show header + metadata
ps3pkgtool list    <file.pkg>                    list contents
ps3pkgtool extract <file.pkg> [outdir] [-v] [-f] extract (retail or debug)
ps3pkgtool create  <dir> <out.pkg> [-c CONTENTID] [-t TYPE] [-r ROOT] [-s SIZE] [-f]
ps3pkgtool split   <file> [-s SIZE] [-f]         raw split into file.66600, .66601...
ps3pkgtool join    <file.66600> [out] [-f]       join the parts back
ps3pkgtool selftest                              check the crypto on this CPU
ps3pkgtool version                               print the version

Overwriting

If an output file already exists, extract, create, split and join ask once before overwriting. Pass -f to overwrite without asking (for scripts or when you leave it running). With no console attached and no -f, the tool stops instead of waiting for an answer.

Extract

ps3pkgtool extract game.pkg outdir

Works with retail (finalized) and debug/homebrew packages. "Custom installer" packages store names like ../../../dev_hdd0/GAMES/...; list shows them as they are, extract drops the .. parts so everything stays inside outdir (you get outdir/dev_hdd0/GAMES/...).

Create

Point it at the folder that has PARAM.SFO at its root, i.e. what will become /dev_hdd0/game/<TITLE_ID>/ on the console:

ps3pkgtool create MyGame out.pkg
ps3pkgtool create MyGame out.pkg -c UP0001-NPEB00000_00-0000000000000000

Without -c the content ID is built from TITLE_ID in PARAM.SFO. Packages are debug-style (non finalized), same layout PSL1GHT produces.

Custom install path (-r): the folder's contents are installed to any path instead of /dev_hdd0/game/<TITLE_ID>/, using the same ../../../ trick custom installer packages use:

ps3pkgtool create BLUS30016 nfs.pkg -r /dev_hdd0/GAMES/BLUS30016

(In Git Bash / MSYS on Windows drop the leading slash, -r dev_hdd0/GAMES/BLUS30016, or the shell rewrites it into a Windows path. PowerShell and cmd are fine either way.)

Several installable packages (-s): instead of one big package, write out_1p.pkg, out_2p.pkg... of up to the given size. Each one is a complete package holding a slice of the files; install them all, in any order.

ps3pkgtool create BLUS30016 nfs.pkg -r /dev_hdd0/GAMES/BLUS30016 -s 4000M

A package cannot hold part of a file, so if a single file is larger than the part size create -s refuses to run, lists the offending files and writes nothing. Use the raw split below for those.

Split / join

ps3pkgtool split big.pkg            # big.pkg.66600, .66601, ...  (FAT32-safe by default)
ps3pkgtool split big.pkg -s 2G
ps3pkgtool join  big.pkg.66600      # back to big.pkg

This is a plain byte split, like archive volumes: the pieces are not installable on their own and must be concatenated in order first (with join on PC, or on the console by a separate homebrew).

Performance notes

• Retail packages are AES-128-CTR; with AES-NI this is limited by your disk.
• Debug packages use a SHA-1 based keystream (two SHA-1 blocks per 16 bytes), which is inherently slower. It uses the SHA extensions (SHA-NI) when the CPU has them and scales with the number of cores.

Real-world run

Need for Speed Carbon folder game (25 files, 11.86 GB) on a Ryzen 7 7730U, Windows 11, debug package with SHA-NI:

	Time	Throughput
extract	29 s	~406 MB/s
create -r	52 s (hash pass + write pass)	~402 MB/s

(The create screenshot predates a display fix: it counted both passes in one bar, hence the doubled MB figure. The package itself is 11.86 GB.)

Limitations

• create only makes debug-style packages (no finalized/retail output).
• Files flagged as PSP content inside a PS3 package are handled but untested.
• No MSVC support; build with GCC or Clang.

Credits

Format knowledge comes from public homebrew documentation and tools (psdevwiki, PSL1GHT's pkg.py, RPCS3). No official SDK material was used.

Releasing

Bump VERSION in ps3pkgtool.c, then run release.bat (Windows). It commits, pushes and pushes a v<VERSION> tag; GitHub Actions builds the binaries and publishes the release.

License

MIT: do what you want with it, just keep the copyright notice.