read

Read a specific file to stdout.

Read a specific file from an MPQ archive

Read the patch.cmd file from an MPQ archive and print the file contents to stdout. Even though the subcommand always outputs bytes, plaintext files will be human-readable.

$ mpqcli read patch.cmd wow-patch.mpq
* set the product patch name
PatchVersion This patch upgrades World of Warcraft from version 1.10.0.5195 to version 1.10.1.5230.
* make sure that we don't patch version 1.10.1.5230 or greater
FileVersionEqualTo    "$(InstallPath)\WoW.exe"    1.10.0.5195   0xffff.0xffff.0xffff.0xffff
* ProductVersionLessThan "$(InstallPath)\WoW.exe"    0.0.0.256  0.0.0.0xffff
Language enGB
SetLauncher "$(InstallPath)\WoW.exe"
* SetUninstall $(WinDir)\WoWUnin.dat
Self "World of Warcraft"
WoWPatchIndex 2
PatchSize 1992294400

The tool will always print output in bytes and is designed to be “piped” or redirected. For example, redirect the binary WoW.exe file from a WoW patch to a local file:

$ mpqcli read "WoW.exe" wow-patch.mpq > WoW.exe

Another example, piping the bytes to the xxd tool.

$ mpqcli read "WoW.exe" wow-patch.mpq | xxd
00000000: 1800 0404 de2a a5da 3240 4500 3250 4500  .....*..2@E.2PE.
00000010: 69ac 2703 0859 c601 0a7a 4500 8942 5344  i.'..Y...zE..BSD
00000020: 4946 4634 30a0 2905 8203 f244 0482 3250  IFF40.)....D..2P
00000030: 4504 8080 0280 9002 8098 0281 d801 0585  E...............

Read one specific file with locale

Use the --locale argument to specify the locale of the file to read. If there is no file with the requested name and locale, the default locale will be used instead.

$ mpqcli read "rez\stat_txt.tbl" Patch_rt.mpq --locale ptPT