How can I change name-encoding opening a zip file?

[myungsuk]

I tried to open a zip file in Total Commander.
It showed unreadable codes.
Image: http://www.myungsuk.com/font.png
I tried the winrar software and changed the name-encoding to Korean and it worked.
Image: http://www.myungsuk.com/font2.png
Is there a I can do that in Total Commander?

[ghisler(Author)]

Total Commander 9.50 will support it. The beta test will start here in the forum in a few weeks.

[Andrey S]

> Total Commander 9.50 will support it.
I have Total Commander 10.0. How to change it?

P.S. Thank you for a very good program!

[ghisler(Author)]

When you open a ZIP with ENTER or Ctrl+PageDown, it shows [auto] in the "Name" column of the tabstop header (it must be enabled via Configuration - Options - Layout - Show tapstop header).

Right click on [auto] and choose the encoding you need.
Please note that when an archive is encoded with UTF-8 and indicates that in the header, this cannot be changed.

[yyang]

When you open a ZIP with ENTER or Ctrl+PageDown, it shows [auto] in the "Name" column of the tabstop header.

Is it possible to add a configuration for the preferred default encoding, or inherit the last used one? It seems the "auto" method often fails to detect UTF-8 encoding names in zip files generated on macOS (judging from the "__MACOSX" folder, not sure about the program used).

Blame on these non-standard-compliant zip files, but it'll make one's life easier to try out UTF-8 "everywhere".

[ghisler(Author)]

The ZIP standard uses a specific bit in the header flags to mark headers using UTF-8. Currently I'm not trying to auto-detect UTF-8 when this flag isn't set, because it can lead to false positives with some Asian languages.

[yyang]

Thanks for the reply! As a user from China, my daily experience is, without the UTF-8 bit, 7-zip and WinRAR "always" write the correct file names, and Total Commander needs some manual help. When a coworker sends me some zip file, I hate to interrupt the workflow inside Total Commander and remind myself, "oh, it's a 7-zip job". Having an option to default to UTF-8 despite the false positives (highly unlikely in my environment) would be dreamy...

[ghisler(Author)]

Since they seem to use 7zip and WinRAR, why not ask them to send you 7z/rar files? There are no such encoding problems with these two formats.

[yyang]

I don't think these .zip files are generated by 7-zip or WinRAR. I meant both 7-zip and WinRAR could handle this encoding issue automatically in decompression, and it's a pity Total Commander could not. Sorry for not making my point clear.

[ghisler(Author)]

I need to see a test file before I can decide whether there is something I can do or not.
Maybe you can edit some files and just remove the contents or replace them with xxx and pack them back.

[yyang]

I've emailed you a sample zip file. Thanks a lot!

[ghisler(Author)]

Got it, thanks! The problem is that both in ANSI and UTF-8 encoding the file name contains valid Chinese characters. The flags indicate that the file doesn't use UTF-8...

[yyang]

Thanks for the investigation! I still wonder why standalone file archivers like 7-Zip and WinRAR could guess so well... Is there space for improvement? My personal wish is an option or something to "always try UTF-8 first" (at any risk).

[ghisler(Author)]

They probably can't, they just do the check for valid UTF-8 and ignore that the text could also be valid ANSI as the header indicates...

One solution would be an option in the wincmd.ini, e.g. PreferUtf8Dection or so...

[yyang]

Such an option would be good enough. Thanks in advance.