How to unpack a chrome theme?
How to unpack a packed chrome theme(*.crx)? Their FAQ states how to pack, but not how to unpack.
I got the solution: apparently, a .crx file is just a renamed .zip file. Additionally, when you install it, the theme is decompressed into the chrome install directory...
On Mac OS X, you can use unzip
to decompress the .crx
file:
unzip extension.crx
Here's the result:
Actually it's more than a zip. When you unzip -l
you'll see a message:
warning [extension.crx]: 306 extra bytes at beginning or within zipfile
So the crx file is 306 bytes of something plus a zip archive.
Chrome extension install directory:
Mac:
/Users/username/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Extensions
Windows 7:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions
Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\YourUserName\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default
This video explains everything about what a .crx is. In addition to a .zip holding all the extension's resources, it includes a public key and a signature, to ensure integrity and authenticity of the file: Antony Sargent explains .crx files Hosted by: youtube.com
The details of the .crx package format are published here.