Parchive (a
portmanteau of
parity archive, and formally known as
Parity Volume Set Specification) is an
erasure code system that produces
par files for
checksum verification of
data integrity, with the capability to perform
data recovery operations that can repair or regenerate corrupted or missing data. Parchive was originally written to solve the problem of reliable file sharing on
Usenet, but it is now commonly used for protecting any kind of data from
data corruption,
bit rot, and accidental or malicious damage. Despite the name, Parchive uses more advanced techniques that do not utilize simplistic parity methods of
error detection and correction.