Multiarc FreeArc Addon

[Matthias030]

It's not an popular compressor, but maybe someone is interested in.
You can get FreeArc here: http://freearc.org/

Put this code into multiarc.ini

; -----------------------------------------------------------------------
; TotalCommander MultiArc config addon for FreeArc archives.
; To install it, append contents of this file to multiarc.ini
; Arc.exe and unarc.exe should be in your PATH - or write paths here.
; -----------------------------------------------------------------------
; Version: FreeArc 0.50
; Available at: http://freearc.org
; Comments: none
; WARNINGS: none
; -----------------------------------------------------------------------
;
[FreeArc]
ID=41 72 43 01
IDPos=
Extension=arc
Description="FreeArc 0.50"
Archiver=Arc.exe
Format0="yyyy tt dd hh mm ss aaaaaaa zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ppppppppppppppp rrrrrrrr nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn"
Start="^--"
End="^--"
List="unarc v --noarcext -- %AQA"
Test="%P t --noarcext -sclANSI -- %AQA @%LA"
Add="%P a {-ap%RA} --noarcext -sclANSI {%S} -- %AQA @%LA"
Move="%P m {-ap%RA} --noarcext -sclANSI {%S} -- %AQA @%LA"
Extract="%P e -y --noarcext -sclANSI -- %AQA @%LA"
ExtractWithPath="%P x -y --noarcext -sclANSI -- %AQA @%LA"
Delete="%P d --noarcext -sclANSI -- %AQA @%LA"
AskHistory0=-m2
AskHistory1=-mx
AskHistory2=-max
IgnoreErrors=0
Debug=0
UnixPath=1
SkipDirsInFileList=0
SkipEmptyNames=1
BatchUnpack=1
SearchForUglyDirs=0
AskMode=2
SkipLIST=1
SkipSfxHeader=1

This code is also included in FreeArc-Installation.

[fenix_productions]

Everytime I try to unpack or browse an archive created by FreeArc I've got following error:

---------------------------
Warning!
---------------------------
Executing command ' unarc v --noarcext -- S:\irrKlang-1.1.0.arc ' returned errorlevel -1. Possibly an error occurred. Archive listing wasn't retrieved.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

The only thing I've changed in addon was archiver path:

Archiver=%COMMANDER_PATH%\Plugins\paker\multiarc\addons\exe\freearc\arc.exe

I've tried moving arc.exe around, different parameters in MultiArc dialog (which appears at the beggining of compression) and different files / folders. Nothing works OK.

[Matthias030]

Did you copy both files arc.exe and unarc.exe to your directory? Archive Listing is handled by unarc.exe. All other operations (packing / unpacking) is handled by arc.exe

Another idea is that multiarc not supports %COMMANDER_PATH%. Try to set the full path there.

Archiver=c:\totalcmd\Plugins\paker\multiarc\addons\exe\freearc\arc.exe

If this is not working you can copy arc.exe and unarc.exe directly into your multiarc directory and use Archiver setting without path.

Archiver=Arc.exe

This is my configuration and works for me.

[fenix_productions]

2Matthias030
I've copied arc.exe and unarc.exe into multiarc directory and it works. Thank you.

BTW It is strange that other addons have no problems with %COMMANDER_PATH% and this one has.

[MVV]

I see some setup makers use it for setups. I don't know why not just to use standard 7-Zip. I don't think FA provides much better compression or unpacking speed.

Stupid unpacker. I need 4-MB Arc.exe file just for unpacking archives. All normal unXXX.exe allow list AND extract files.

[m^2]

I see some setup makers use it for setups. I don't know why not just to use standard 7-Zip. I don't think FA provides much better compression or unpacking speed.

Depends on how you use it and what's the data. Sometimes it can be greatly better than 7zip. Or own size can make it somewhat worse.

[nsp]

I see some setup makers use it for setups. I don't know why not just to use standard 7-Zip. I don't think FA provides much better compression or unpacking speed.

Stupid unpacker. I need 4-MB Arc.exe file just for unpacking archives. All normal unXXX.exe allow list AND extract files.

MVV who said 7-zip is standard ?

Compression is a very hard topic and all depends on which data/file you compress and to who and how you distribute. I have a bunch of packer/unpacker on my drive just because people use specific packer...

It seems that FA compress faster than 7-Zip, the unpacker unarc.exe is able to extract files and is only 80K upx'ed

[MVV]

Unpacker unarc.exe is NOT able to extract files. It is able only to LIST files as Matthias030 wrote and I confirmed it yesterday. I was able to unpack files only when I placed arc.exe (4-MB) near unarc.exe and changed ExtractWithPath line to start arc.exe insted of unarc.exe. This is stupid. Yes, it is open-source, but someone need to cut from arc.exe all except unpack features to get normal unarc.exe.

7-Zip now it is standard.
It is very popular now. And it provides good compression/decompression speeds and compression ratio.

[m^2]

7-Zip now it is standard.
It is very popular now. And it provides good compression/decompression speeds and compression ratio.

The bold part is questionable. The underscored one is just wrong. LZMA can be greatly beaten at decompressing with little loss in ratio. And it definitely doesn't decompress fast.

[Matthias030]

I don't know why not just to use standard 7-Zip. I don't think FA provides much better compression or unpacking speed.

FA provides better compression as 7zip. I see it by packing 2 big folders of pc games. (every folder ~12GB). FA had make archives around 400MB smaller than 7zip. With FA size was small enough to burn every archive onto a standard dvd.

But FA is damn slow at max compression level and mostly the difference in compression is very small compared to 7zip. So I use FA only in these rarely cases, if 7zip can't make it work to make archive small enough to fit onto cd or dvd. I can not recommend FA for daily use.

7-Zip now it is standard.
It is very popular now. And it provides good compression/decompression speeds and compression ratio.

7-Zip is a standard. Some years ago it was only popular in russia. Now it is used all over the world. Big software companies use it for make setups and compress files. I think it is the most important packer behind all time leaders ZIP and RAR.
Maybe someday FA becomes better and more popular as 7zip. But there are some things to do. Most important thing for FA is improving GUI. There are too much settings and GUI looks ugly.

[m^2]

I don't know why not just to use standard 7-Zip. I don't think FA provides much better compression or unpacking speed.

FA provides better compression as 7zip. I see it by packing 2 big folders of pc games. (every folder ~12GB). FA had make archives around 400MB smaller than 7zip. With FA size was small enough to burn every archive onto a standard dvd.

But FA is damn slow at max compression level and mostly the difference in compression is very small compared to 7zip. So I use FA only in these rarely cases, if 7zip can't make it work to make archive small enough to fit onto cd or dvd. I can not recommend FA for daily use.

You know, FA has faster modes too. And in each mode it does better than a comparable (speed-wise) 7zip one. Talking about average, not some special datasets (f.e. 7-zip shines on executables).

[MVV]

7-Zip now it is standard.
It is very popular now. And it provides good compression/decompression speeds and compression ratio.

The bold part is questionable. The underscored one is just wrong. LZMA can be greatly beaten at decompressing with little loss in ratio. And it definitely doesn't decompress fast.

I can't say that LZMA has bad decompression speed. IMHO it has much better decompression speed than RAR. Of course ZIP has better decompression speed - but it has very bad compression ratio.

Today I made a test of FA. I unpacked one of archives of some installation that is compressed using FA. And I compressed unpacked data using 7-Zip (64 MB dictionary). I've got 430-MB 7-Zip archive instead of 243-MB FA archive - it is really good result. But I didn't check how much RAM FA uses for decompression.

[Matthias030]

Both packers have its advantages. 7zip gives very good compression ratio and it is widely supported. FA has better compression, but it is not well-known. Can I unpack FA archives in 5 years without saving unextract executable to archive?

7zip addon is better usable in TC, because Multiarc calls real 7zip GUI.
http://ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=23717&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=22
I use FA multiarc addon only for unpacking FA archives. For packing files I open FA GUI manually.

FA is great if you need an archive to have the smallest possible size, e.g. to fit a cd-rom. For daily use and average archive sizes it's irrelevant for me, if archive is 2MB more or less in size. But I think FA is a good candidate to replace 7zip in the near future.

[nsp]

Unpacker unarc.exe is NOT able to extract files. It is able only to LIST files as Matthias030 wrote and I confirmed it yesterday....

I did a new try today with lastest downloaded version (removing arc.exe from the path and from the unarc.exe folder and i succeeded in decompressing my test archives. I'm a lucky boy , the cmd i used was

Code: Select all

unarc.exe x -dp. -cfg- -- test.arc

-- edit --
The version i tried is FreeArc-portable-0.666-win32.zip\bin\unarc.exe

[MVV]

Hm-m, you're right, it really works. But it doesn't work when I try to unpack specific file from archive, e.g.:

Code: Select all

unarc.exe x "data-9.freearc.bin" "Character Pimper\AutoPlay\Repository\EP1 Game\_Hybrid\Notes.rtf"

And it works when I specify arc.exe instead of unarc.exe using same parameters.


I found reason why unarc is unable to extract files using full path - its chec k function checks only filename, so we need to use -ap parameter. So following works fine:

Code: Select all

unarc.exe x "data-9.freearc.bin" -ap"Character Pimper\AutoPlay\Repository\EP1 Game\_Hybrid" "Notes.rtf"

But does it mean that I can't unpack list of files from different directories at once?


And anyway it won't work if you specify folder name using wrong character case (e.g. pimper instead of Pimper) - it compares paths using strncmp i.e. check is case sensitive. It will only work right for Unix-like systems.


And, unarc.exe doesn't support filelists with @.


As I see, main Arc.exe application is written in Haskell !! And it processes wrong character case or full path inside of archive correctly.
It is strange why they have such bad unpacker tool.