Extract text from PPU files
To convert your PPU file to another format, you need Free Pascal Compiler or other Developer software.
To convert other file formats to the "Compiler Output" file type, you need software like Free Pascal Compiler or a similar tool.
A .ppu file is a Pascal Precompiled Unit generated by the Free Pascal Compiler (FPC). It functions similarly to a DCU file in Delphi or a precompiled header in C++, storing the compiled interface, symbol tables, and machine code references derived from a source PAS or PP file. These files are critical for speeding up the build process by allowing the compiler to skip parsing unchanged source code.
For developers, the .ppu format presents a significant "black box" challenge. Because it is a proprietary binary format tightly coupled to the specific compiler version (e.g., FPC 3.2.2), you cannot open it in a standard text editor like VS Code or Notepad++. A common frustration arises when moving projects between environments: a unit compiled on Windows won't work on Linux, and a unit built with an older FPC version will trigger "Unit was compiled with a different version" errors. Users often find themselves with a .ppu file but missing the original source code, effectively locking them out of the logic.
To "convert" a .ppu file, the pragmatic goal is usually to recover readable text or the original interface. The best approach is using the ppudump utility to generate a TXT dump of the unit's header and interface.
Convert.Guru analyzes your PPU file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted PAS, PP and PPW files.
If you want to convert PPU file to JS, TS, PY, JAVA, CPP, C, CS, PHP, RB, GO, RS or SWIFT, you can use Free Pascal Compiler or similar software from the "Compiled Pascal Unit" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert SH, PY, KT, PS1, SWIFT, LUA, PL, JAVA, SCALA, JS, VBS or TS files to PPU, try Free Pascal Compiler or another comparable tool in the "Compiled Pascal Unit" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our PPU converter.