add

Add one or more files to an existing MPQ archive.

The archive is always the first positional argument, followed by one or more files or directories. All inputs are processed in a single open/close cycle, which is significantly faster than calling add once per file.

Add a single file

$ echo "For The Horde" > fth.txt
$ mpqcli add wow-patch.mpq fth.txt
[+] Adding file: fth.txt

Add multiple files at once

Pass more than one file path after the archive. The archive is opened once for all files.

$ mpqcli add wow-patch.mpq fth.txt fta.txt fts.txt
[+] Adding file: fth.txt
[+] Adding file: fta.txt
[+] Adding file: fts.txt

Add files from stdin

Pass - as the file argument to read paths from standard input. This works with find, ls, or any other tool that produces file paths.

$ find . -name "*.blp" | mpqcli add wow-patch.mpq -
[+] Adding file: textures\Creature\Bear\Bear.blp
[+] Adding file: textures\Creature\Wolf\Wolf.blp
...

Add a directory

Pass a directory path to recursively add all files within it. The directory structure is preserved relative to the directory root.

$ mpqcli add wow-patch.mpq textures/
[+] Adding file: Creature\Bear\Bear.blp
[+] Adding file: Creature\Wolf\Wolf.blp

Use --path to add a prefix to every archived path:

$ mpqcli add wow-patch.mpq textures/ --path textures
[+] Adding file: textures\Creature\Bear\Bear.blp
[+] Adding file: textures\Creature\Wolf\Wolf.blp

Skip unchanged files with –update

When adding a directory, the --update flag skips any file whose on-disk size matches the size already stored in the archive. This is useful for incremental updates where only changed files need to be re-added.

$ mpqcli add wow-patch.mpq textures/ --update --overwrite
[~] Skipping unchanged file: Creature\Bear\Bear.blp
[+] Adding file: Creature\Wolf\Wolf.blp
[*] For textures: 1 files added, 1 files skipped, 0 files failed.

Note: the skip check is size-based only. Files with the same size but different content are not detected as changed. If precise change detection matters, pass --overwrite without --update to unconditionally replace every file.

Control where files are stored

For single files, one can specify both directory and filename in one step using -p or --path:

$ mpqcli add wow-patch.mpq fts.txt --path "texts\swarm.txt"
[+] Adding file: texts\swarm.txt

For directories, one can specify the base directory using -p or --path:

$ mpqcli add wow-patch.mpq textures/ --path textures
[+] Adding file: textures\Creature\Bear\Bear.blp
[+] Adding file: textures\Creature\Wolf\Wolf.blp
[*] For textures: 2 files added, 0 files skipped, 0 files failed.

Overwrite existing files

Without --overwrite, any file that already exists in the archive is skipped:

$ mpqcli add wow-patch.mpq allegiance.txt
[!] File already exists in MPQ archive: allegiance.txt - Skipping...

Set -w or --overwrite to replace it:

$ mpqcli add wow-patch.mpq allegiance.txt --overwrite
[+] File already exists in MPQ archive: allegiance.txt - Overwriting...
[+] Adding file: allegiance.txt

Add with a locale

Use --locale to store the file under a specific locale. Files added without --locale use the default locale.

$ mpqcli add wow-patch.mpq allianz.txt --locale deDE
[+] Adding file for locale deDE: allianz.txt

Add with game-specific compression

Use -g or --game to apply the compression and encryption rules for a specific game.

$ mpqcli add archive.mpq khwhat1.wav --game warcraft2
[+] Adding file: khwhat1.wav