OpenSUSE 11.1 GNOME User Guide - Creating, Displaying, and Decompressing Archives

openSUSE 11.1 GNOME User Guide
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1.16 Creating, Displaying, and Decompressing Archives

You can use the Archive Manager application (also known as File Roller) to create, view, modify, or unpack an archive. An archive is a file that acts as a container for other files. An archive can contain many files, folders, and subfolders, usually in compressed form. Archive Manager application supports common formats, such as zip, tar.gz, tar.bz2, lzh, and rar. You can use Archive Manager to create, open, and extract a compressed non-archive file.

To start Archive Manager, click Computer > More Applications > Utilities > File Roller. If you already have a compressed file, double-click the filename in the Nautilus file manager to view the contents of the archive in Archive Manager.

Figure 1-21 Archive Manager

1.16.1 Opening an Archive

In Archive Manager, click Archive > Open.
Select the archive you want to open.
Click Open.

Archive Manager automatically determines the archive type, and displays the following:
- The archive name in the window titlebar.
- The archive contents in the display area.
- The total number of files in the archive, and the size of the archive when uncompressed, in the statusbar.
To open another archive, click Archive > Open again. Archive Manager opens each archive in a new window. To open another archive in the same window, you must first click Archive > Close to close the current archive, then click Archive > Open.

If you try to open an archive that was created in a format that Archive Manager does not recognize, the application displays an error message.

1.16.2 Creating Archives

In Archive Manager, click Archive > New.
Specify the name and location of the new archive.
Select an archive type from the Archive type drop-down list.
Click New.

Archive Manager creates an empty archive, but does not yet write the archive to disk. Archive Manager writes a new archive to disk only when the archive contains at least one file. If you create a new archive and quit Archive Manager before you add any files to the archive, Archive Manager deletes the archive.
Add files and folders to the new archive:
1. Click Edit > Add Files or Edit > Add a Folder, then select the files or folders you want to add.
  
  You cannot add folders to the archive with the Add Files dialog box. Use the Add a Folder dialog box.
2. Click Add.
  
  Archive Manager adds the files to the current folder in the archive.

You can also add files to an archive in a file manager window without opening Archive Manager. See Section 1.5.2, Archiving Folders for more information.

1.16.3 Extracting Files From an Archive

In Archive Manager, select the files that you want to extract.
Click Archive > Extract.
Specify the folder where Archive Manager will extracts the files.

Choose from the following extract options:

Option	Description
All files	Extracts all files from the archive.
Selected files	Extracts the selected files from the archive.
Files	Extracts from the archive all files that match the specified pattern.
Re-create folders	Reconstructs the folder structure when extracting the specified files. For example, you specify /tmp in the Filename text box and choose to extract all files. The archive contains a subfolder called doc. If you select the Re-create folders option, Archive Manager extracts the contents of the subfolder to /tmp/doc. If you do not select the Re-create folders option, Archive Manager does not create any subfolders. Instead, Archive Manager extracts all files from the archive, including files from subfolders, to /tmp.
Overwrite existing files	Overwrites any files in the destination folder that have the same name as the specified files. If you do not select this option, Archive Manager does not extract the specified file if an existing file with the same name already exists in the destination folder.
Do not extract older files	Extracts the specified file only if the destination folder does not contain the specified file, or if the destination folder contains an older version of the specified file. Archive Manager uses the modification date to determine which file is the most recent. If the version of the file in the archive is older, Archive Manager does not extract the specified file to the destination folder. This option is only available if the Overwrite existing files option is selected.
Password	This option is available only if the archive type supports encryption. Currently, only .zip and .arj archives support encryption. If the archive contains encrypted files, enter the required password in the Password field to decrypt the specified files during the extraction process. The required password is the encryption password that was specified when the archive was created.
Open destination folder after extraction	Displays the contents of the destination folder in a file manager window after the extraction of the specified files is completed.

Click Extract.

If all of the files in the archive are protected by a password, and you have not specified the password, Archive Manager displays an error dialog.

If some but not all of the files in the archive are protected by a password, and you have not specified the password, Archive Manager does not display an error dialog. However, Archive Manager extracts only the unprotected files to the new archive.

To extract an archived file in a file manager window without opening Archive Manager, right-click the file, then select Extract Here.

The Extract operation extracts a copy of the specified files from the archive. The extracted files have the same permissions and modification date as the original files that were added to the archive.

The Extract operation does not change the contents of the archive.

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