Installing p7zip into your own account shouldn't require any extra privileges. Download the p7zip binary tarball from here, extract it, and run 7z from its included bin directory.
From an Ubuntu system of mine where I'm not using root privileges:
user@host:~/Inbox/p7zip_9.20.1/bin$ ./7z
7-Zip 9.20 Copyright (c) 1999-2010 Igor Pavlov 2010-11-18
p7zip Version 9.20 (locale=en_US.UTF-8,Utf16=on,HugeFiles=on,2 CPUs)
Usage: 7z <command> [<switches>...] <archive_name> [<file_names>...]
[<@listfiles...>]
<Commands>
a: Add files to archive
...
-y: assume Yes on all queries
user@host:~/Inbox/p7zip_9.20.1/bin$
Full example on a fresh Debian install, just in case (using 7z
, not 7za
):
renfro@itchy:~$ ls
debian-6.0.4-amd64-netinst.iso p7zip.tar.bz2
renfro@itchy:~$ tar -jxf p7zip.tar.bz2
renfro@itchy:~$ ls
debian-6.0.4-amd64-netinst.iso p7zip_9.20.1 p7zip.tar.bz2
renfro@itchy:~$ p7zip_9.20.1/bin/7z x debian-6.0.4-amd64-netinst.iso
7-Zip 9.20 Copyright (c) 1999-2010 Igor Pavlov 2010-11-18
p7zip Version 9.20 (locale=en_US.UTF-8,Utf16=on,HugeFiles=on,1 CPU)
Processing archive: debian-6.0.4-amd64-netinst.iso
Extracting .disk
Extracting .disk/base_components
Extracting .disk/base_installable
Extracting .disk/cd_type
Extracting .disk/info
Extracting .disk/mkisofs
Extracting .disk/udeb_include
Extracting README.html
Extracting README.mirrors.html
...
Extracting tools/loadlin.txt
Extracting win32-loader.ini
Extracting [BOOT]/Bootable_NoEmulation.img
Everything is Ok
Folders: 282
Files: 520
Size: 174877270
Compressed: 176160768
renfro@itchy:~$