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How to Extract and Open a Garry’s Mod .GMA File

Use Garry’s Mod’s bundled gmad utility to extract a .gma archive, save files to a chosen folder, and locate Workshop downloads.
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To open a Garry’s Mod .gma archive and see its contents, use the gmad utility included with the game. In a command prompt or terminal, run gmad.exe extract -file "C:pathtoyourfile.gma". To choose where the files are saved, add -out "C:pathtodestination". The official Facepunch gmad documentation supports both forms.

What a .gma file is—and what opening it does

A .gma file is a Garry’s Mod addon package. Facepunch’s gmad utility is designed to create and extract these files. Extracting one unpacks its contents into a folder; it does not install the addon or ensure that its assets will work in another application without additional setup.

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If you only want to use an addon in Garry’s Mod, extraction may not be necessary. Garry’s Mod supports Workshop addons, and its bundled tools are also used for addon creation and publishing. See the Garry’s Mod Wiki’s Workshop Addon Creation guide.

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Find the GMA file and the extractor

Locate the addon archive

If the file came from a Workshop download, a community guide points to Steam’s steamapps/workshop/content/4000 directory, where an addon may be stored in a numbered folder. The precise path depends on which Steam library contains Garry’s Mod and how the addon was downloaded; treat this as a pointer, not a guaranteed location. Check the active Steam library and search its Workshop content directory if needed. See the Steam Community guide.

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Locate gmad

The Garry’s Mod Wiki places the Windows executable in <Steam location>/steamapps/common/garrysmod/bin. On Linux, it identifies the linux32 or linux64 subdirectory, as appropriate for the installation. Use the path for your actual Steam library and platform; the Wiki’s tool-location instructions cover the bundled utilities.

Extract the archive

  1. Open a command prompt or terminal. Change to Garry’s Mod’s bin directory, or use the full path to the gmad executable in your command.
  2. Run the extraction command. On Windows, from the directory containing gmad.exe, enter gmad.exe extract -file "C:pathtoyourfile.gma". Replace the example path with the archive’s full path. Quotation marks keep paths containing spaces together.
  3. Choose an output folder if you want one. Add -out "C:pathtodestination", for example: gmad.exe extract -file "C:UsersSamDownloadsaddon.gma" -out "C:UsersSamDesktopaddon-files". Without -out, Facepunch’s documented example extracts into the source file’s parent folder. The command syntax is documented in the gmad repository.
  4. Inspect the resulting folder. The extracted files are the addon’s contents. An unfamiliar folder or title does not necessarily mean you opened the wrong Workshop item: Garry’s Mod uses the title embedded inside the GMA, which can differ from the displayed Workshop title, according to the Wiki’s File Search Paths documentation.

Choose where the extracted files go

Method Command form When to use it
Default destination gmad.exe extract -file "C:pathtoyourfile.gma" Use when extracting beside the source archive is convenient; Facepunch’s example uses the source file’s parent folder.
Specified destination gmad.exe extract -file "C:pathtoyourfile.gma" -out "C:pathtodestination" Use when you want the unpacked files in a separate folder and want to keep the source directory tidy.

Both methods use the same official extractor; the difference is where the extracted files are saved. On Linux, run the platform-appropriate bundled binary from the Garry’s Mod tool directories and adapt the example paths to your system.

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Fix common command and file-location problems

The command cannot find the GMA file

  • Check that the file path is complete and spelled correctly, including the .gma extension.
  • Put quotation marks around paths containing spaces, and use the full path for both the input archive and any output folder.
  • If it is a Workshop download, check the active Steam library’s Workshop content directory; the addon may be inside a numbered folder rather than the Garry’s Mod addons folder.

The command cannot find gmad

Run the command from Garry’s Mod’s bin directory or specify the executable’s full path. Confirm that you are using the binary for your operating system; the Wiki documents the Windows location and the Linux platform-specific directories in its Workshop Addon Creation instructions.

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The extracted content does not work in another application

Extraction only unpacks the addon. It does not convert or configure assets for other software. A community guide discussing Source Filmmaker notes that some content can require modification, so do not assume that a successful extraction makes every file immediately usable elsewhere.

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The file fails to extract

If the command is correct but extraction still fails, the available documentation does not establish how every malformed, encrypted, compressed, or legacy file variant behaves. The file’s origin, exact extension, operating system, and complete error text are the useful details for narrowing down that specific failure.

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