pwunconv

pwunconv is a lightweight, cross‑platform command‑line utility designed to convert files between various P‑W (PowerWarp) data formats and UN (UltraNative) compressed archive formats. It was first released in 2015 as a companion tool for the legacy PowerWarp software suite, which was widely used in scientific data acquisition systems. The primary goal of pwunconv is to provide a fast, scriptable path for migrating legacy datasets to modern analysis pipelines without manual intervention.

The tool supports a range of operations, including extraction of UN archives into raw P‑W files, compression of P‑W datasets into UN archives, and conversion of metadata between the two formats. All operations are performed using a single executable, which accepts command‑line arguments to specify input, output, and optional flags such as verbose logging or forced overwriting. A simple help interface (pwunconv –help) lists all options and examples. Internally, pwunconv uses a custom binary format library that is bundled with the application, allowing it to run on Windows, Linux, and macOS without external dependencies other than a standard C runtime.

pwunconv is distributed under the MIT license, encouraging both commercial and open‑source projects to integrate its functionality. The project’s repository on GitHub hosts releases, documentation, and a changelog detailing incremental improvements such as faster I/O routines added in version 2.1, and added support for 64‑bit archive indices in version 3.0. Users can also contribute bug reports or feature requests via the issue tracker.