# &app; Manual

## Introduction

You can use the &app; application 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.

&app; provides only a graphical interface, and relies on command-line utilities such as `tar`, `gzip`, and `bzip2` for archive operations.

If you have the appropriate command-line tools installed on your system, &app; supports the archive formats listed in the following table.

Format | Filename Extension
7-Zip archive | `.7z`
WinAce archive | `.ace`
ALZip archive | `.alz`
AIX small indexed archive | `.ar`
ARJ archive | `.arj`
Cabinet file | `.cab`
UNIX CPIO archive | `.cpio`
Debian Linux package | `.deb`
ISO-9660 CD disc image | `.iso`
Java archive | `.jar`
Java enterprise archive | `.ear`
Java web archive | `.war`
LHA archive | `.lha`, `.lzh`
WinRAR compressed archive | `.rar`
RAR Archived Comic Book | `.cbr`
RPM Linux package | `.rpm`
Uncompressed tar archive | `.tar`
Tar archive compressed with `bzip` | `.tar.bz` or `.tbz`
Tar archive compressed with `bzip2` | `.tar.bz2` or `.tbz2`
Tar archive compressed with `gzip` | `.tar.gz` or `.tgz`
Tar archive compressed with `lzip` | `.tar.lz` or `.tlz`
Tar archive compressed with `lzop` | `.tar.lzo` or `.tzo`
Tar archive compressed with `compress` | `.tar.Z` or `.taz`
Tar archive compressed with `7zip` | `.tar.7z`
Stuffit archives | `.bin` or `.sit`
PKZIP or WinZip archive | `.zip`
ZIP Archived Comic Book | `.cbz`
Zoo archive | `.zoo`

The most common archive format on UNIX and Linux systems is the tar archive compressed with `gzip` or `bzip2`.

The most common archive format on Microsoft Windows systems is the archive created with PKZIP or WinZip.

### Compressed Non-Archive Files

A compressed non-archive file is a file that is created when you use `bzip2`, `gzip`, `lzip`, `lzop`, `compress` or `rzip` to compress a non-archive file. For example, `file.txt.gz` is created when you use `gzip` to compress `file.txt`.

You can use &app; to create, open and extract a compressed non-archive file.

## Getting Started

This section provides information on how to start &app;, and describes the &app; user interface.

### To Start &app;

You can start &app; in the following ways:

Applications menu

- Choose Accessories Archive Manager.

Command line

- Execute the following command: `file-roller`

### When You Start &app;

When you start &app;, the following window is displayed:

#### &app; Window

Shows File Roller main window.

The &app; window contains the following elements:

Menubar

- The menus on the menubar contain all of the commands that you need to work with archives in &app;.

Toolbar

- The toolbar contains a subset of the commands that you can access from the menubar. &app; displays the toolbar by default. To hide the toolbar, choose View Toolbar. To show the toolbar, choose View Toolbar again.

Folderbar

- The folderbar enables you to navigate among folders within an archive. &app; displays the folderbar only in folder view. See file-roller-view-type-folder for more information.

Display area

- The display area displays the contents of the archive.

Statusbar

- The statusbar displays information about current &app; activity and contextual information about the archive contents. &app; displays the statusbar by default. To hide the statusbar, choose View Statusbar. To show the statusbar, choose View Statusbar again.

When you right-click in the &app; window, the application displays a popup menu. The popup menu contains the most common contextual archive commands.

#### Browsing the Filesystem

Several &app; dialogs (New, Open, Extract,...) enable you to browse files and folders on your computer. Refer to the Desktop User Guide to learn more about using the file browsing dialogs.

You can also refer to the Bookmarks section of the Desktop User Guide to learn how you can use the Places pane to access your favorite locations.

## Working With Archives

When you use &app; to work with an archive, all changes are saved to disk immediately. For example, if you delete a file from an archive, &app; deletes the file as soon as you click OK. This behavior is different to that of most applications, which save the changes to disk only when you quit the application or select Save in the menu.

If an archive is very large, or you have a slow system, some archive actions can take significant time. To abort the current action, press Esc. Alternatively, choose View Stop, or click Stop in the toolbar.

In &app;, you can perform the same action in several ways. For example, you can open an archive in the following ways:

UI Component | Action
Window | Drag an archive into the &app; window from another application such as a file manager.
Menubar | Choose Archive Open. If you have recently opened the archive, it will be listed directly in the Archive menu.
Toolbar | Click on the Open toolbar button. If you have recently opened the archive, click on the down arrow near the Open toolbar button.
Right-click popup menu | Right-click on the archive, then choose Open from the popup menu.
Shortcut keys | Press Ctrl O.

This manual documents functionality from the menubar.

### Filename Patterns

&app; enables you to add, extract, or delete several files at once. To apply an action to all files that match a certain pattern, enter the pattern in the text box. The pattern can include standard wildcard symbols such as * to match any string, and ? to match any single symbol. You can enter several patterns separated by semicolons. &app; applies the action to all files that match at least one of the patterns. The examples in the following table show how to use filename patterns to select files.

Pattern | Files Matched
`*` | All files
`*.tar*` | All files with extension `tar`, including those in which the `tar` extension is followed by any sequence of symbols, such as `filename.tar.gz`
`*.jpg; *.jpeg` | All files with extension `jpg` and all files with extension `jpeg`
`file?.gz` | All files with extension `gz` that have the name "file" followed by any single character, e.g. `file2.gz`, `filex.gz`.

### To Open an Archive

To open an archive, perform the following steps:

1. Choose Archive Open to display the Open dialog. Alternatively press Ctrl O, or click Open in the toolbar.

2. Select the archive that you want to open.

3. Click Open.

&app; automatically determines the archive type, and displays:

- The archive name in the window titlebar

- The archive contents in the display area

- The number files and folders (objects) in the current location, and their size when uncompressed, in the statusbar

To open another archive, choose Archive Open again. &app; opens each archive in a new window. You can't open another archive in the same window.

If you try to open an archive that was created in a format that &app; does not recognize, the application displays an error message. See file-roller-intro for a list of supported formats.

### To Select Files in an Archive

To select all files in an archive, choose Edit Select All or press Ctrl A.

To deselect all files in an archive, choose Edit Deselect All or press Shift Ctrl A.

### To Extract Files From an Archive

To extract files from an open archive, perform the following steps:

1. Select the files that you want to extract. To select more files, press-and-hold Ctrl and click on the files you want to select.

2. Choose Archive Extract to display the Extract dialog. Alternatively click Extract in the toolbar.

3. Select the folder where &app; extracts the files.

4. Select the required extract options. For more information about the extract options, see file-roller-extract-options.

5. Click Extract.

   If all of the files in the archive are protected by a password, and you have not specified it, &app; asks you to enter the password.

   If some but not all of the files in the archive are protected by a password, and you have not specified the password, &app; does not ask for a password. However, &app; extracts only the unprotected files.

   For more information about passwords, see file-roller-encrypt-files.

&app; also provides ways of extracting files from an archive in a file manager window, without opening a &app; window. See file-roller-fmgr for more information.

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. For information on how to delete files from an archive, see file-roller-delete-files.

### To Close an Archive

To close the current archive and the current &app; window, choose Archive Close , or press Ctrl W.

There is no way to close the current archive but not the &app; window.

## Creating Archives

In addition to opening existing archives, you can also create new archives with &app;.

### To Create an Archive

To create an archive, perform the following steps:

1. Choose Archive New to display the New dialog. Alternatively press Ctrl N, or click New in the toolbar.

2. Specify the folder where &app; places the new archive clicking on the entry in the Save in folder drop-down list. If the folder is not present in list, click on Browse for other folders, and select the folder. Alternatively, enter the path in the Name text box.

3. Enter the name of the new archive, including the file extension, in the Name text box. Alternatively you can specify the archive name without extension, and then select the archive type from the Archive type drop-down menu, this way the extension will be added automatically.

4. Select the required create options clicking on Other Options. For more information about the create options, see file-roller-create-options.

5. Click New. &app; creates an empty archive, but does not yet write the archive to disk.

6. Add files to the new archive as described in file-roller-add-files.

   &app; writes a new archive to disk only when the archive contains at least one file. If you create a new archive and quit &app; before you add any files to the archive, &app; deletes the archive.

### To Add Files to an Archive

To add files to an archive, perform the following steps:

1. Decide where in the archive you want to add the files, then open that location in the archive.

2. Choose Edit Add Files to display the Add Files dialog, or click Add Files in the toolbar.

3. Select the files that you want to add. To select more files press-and-hold Ctrl and click the files.

4. Click Add. &app; adds the files to the current folder in the archive.

You cannot add folders to the archive with the Add Files dialog. To add a folder see file-roller-add-folder.

The Add Files dialog provides the Add only if newer option, see file-roller-add-options for more information on this option.

You can also add files to an archive in a file manager window, without opening an &app; window. See file-roller-fmgr for more information.

The Add operation adds a copy of the specified files or folders to the archive. &app; does not remove the original files, which remain unchanged in the file system. The copies that are added to the archive have the same permissions and modification date as the original files.

### To Add a Folder to an Archive

To add a folder to an archive, perform the following steps:

1. Decide where in the archive you want to add the files, then open that location in the archive.

2. Choose Edit Add a Folder to display the Add a Folder dialog.

3. Select the folder that you want to add.

4. Click Add. &app; adds the folder to the current folder in the archive.

The Add a Folder dialog provides several advanced options. See file-roller-add-options for more information.

### To Convert an Archive to Another Format

To convert an archive to another format and save as a new file, perform the following steps:

1. Open the archive that you want to convert.

2. Choose Archive Save As to display the Save dialog.

3. Enter the new archive name in the Name text box.

4. Select the new format from the Archive type drop-down list. Alternatively, enter the filename extension in the Name text box, and select Automatic from the Archive type drop-down list.

5. Select the required create options clicking on Other Options. For more information about the create options, see file-roller-create-options.

6. Click Save.

   If all of the files in the archive are protected by a password, and you have not specified it, &app; asks you to enter the password.

   If some but not all of the files in the archive are protected by a password, and you have not specified the password, &app; does not ask for a password. However, &app; copies only the unprotected files to the new archive.

   For more information about passwords, see file-roller-encrypt-files.

## Modifying the Contents of an Archive

You can modify the contents of an archive in several ways.

### To Encrypt Files in an Archive

For security, you might want to encrypt the files that you add to an archive.

If the archive format supports encryption, you can specify a password to encrypt the files that you add to the archive.

Currently, only 7-Zip, ZIP, RAR and ARJ archives support encryption.

To specify a password for file encryption, perform the following steps:

1. Choose Edit Password to display the Password dialog.

2. Enter the password in the Password text box.

3. Click OK.

&app; uses the password to encrypt the files that you add to the current archive, and to decrypt the files that you extract from the current archive. &app; deletes the password when you close the archive.

For information on how to check whether an archive contains encrypted files, see file-roller-extra-info.

The encryption provided by archive utilities is weak and insecure. If security is important, use a strong encryption tool such as GNU Privacy Guard.

### To Rename a File in an Archive

To rename a file in an archive, perform the following steps:

1. Select the file that you want to rename.

2. Choose Edit Rename, or press F2, to display the Rename dialog.

3. Enter the new filename in the New file name text box.

4. Click Rename.

### To Copy Files in an Archive

To copy files in an archive, perform the following steps:

1. Select the files that you want to copy.

2. Choose Edit Copy, or press Ctrl C.

3. Open the location where you want to put the copied files.

4. Choose Edit Paste, or press Ctrl V.

### To Move Files in an Archive

To move files in an archive, perform the following steps:

1. Select the files that you want to move.

2. Choose Edit Cut, or press Ctrl X.

3. Open the location where you want to put the moved files.

4. Choose Edit Paste, or press Ctrl V.

### To Delete Files From an Archive

To delete files from an archive, perform the following steps:

1. Select the files that you want to delete.

2. Choose Edit Delete or press Delete to display the Delete dialog.

3. Select one of the following delete options:

   All files

4. Delete all files from the archive.

Selected files

- Delete the selected files from the archive.

Files

- Delete from the archive all files that match the specified pattern. See file-roller-pattern for more information about filename patterns.

- Click OK.

### To Modify a File in an Archive

To modify a file in an archive perform the following steps:

1. Double-click the file that you want to open. Alternatively right-click the file and choose Open.

2. Edit the file opened in step 1, and then save your changes.

3. &app; shows a confirmation dialog, asking confirmation to update the file in the archive with the changes you made.

4. Click on Update.

&app; uses the system-defined associations between file types and programs to determine the appropriate application to launch for a specific file. These assocations can be displayed and modified in the Open With tab of the file properties dialog. If &app; cannot determine the appropriate application, &app; displays the Open Files dialog to let you choose an application, as described in below.

#### To Modify a File in an Archive with a Custom Application

You can use an application specified by you, rather than the default application, to modify a file. To use an external application to open a file:

1. Right click the file.

2. Choose Open With....

&app; displays the Open Files dialog, which lists all of the applications that can open files of the specified type. To select one of the applications, double-click the application name or click on the application name and then click Open. Alternatively, enter the application name in the Application text box and then click Open to launch the application of your choice.

Once the application starts follow the procedure from step 2 as described in file-roller-modify-archive-file.

## Viewing Archives

&app; enables you to view several aspects of an archive.

### To View the Properties of an Archive

To view the properties of an archive, choose Archive Properties to display the Properties dialog. The Properties dialog displays the following information about the archive:

Name

- The name of the archive.

Location

- The position of the archive in the file system.

Modified on

- The date and time at which the archive was last modified.

Archive size

- The size of the archive contents when compressed.

Content size

- The size of the archive contents when uncompressed. This information is also available in the statusbar.

Compression ratio

- The compression ratio is a value used to describe the reduction in size of the data. For example a compression ratio of 5 means that the compressed archive is 1/5th the size of the original data.

Number of files

- The number of files in the archive.

### To View the Contents of an Archive

&app; displays the archive contents in the main window as a file list with the following columns:

Name

- The name of a file or folder in the archive.

Size

- The size of the file when the file is extracted from the archive. For a folder, the Size field is blank. For information on how to display the size of the compressed file, see file-roller-extra-info.

Type

- The type of the file. For a folder, the value in the Type field is `Folder`.

Date modified

- The date on which the file was last modified. For a folder, the Date modified field is blank.

Location

- The path to the file within the archive. This column is visible only when the window is in file view, when in folder view the location of the files is displayed in the Location text box of the folderbar. For more information about view types see file-roller-view-type-folder.

If another program has modified the archive since &app; opened the archive, choose View Reload to reload the archive contents from disk.

For information on how to customize the way that &app; displays the archive contents, see file-roller-archive-custom.

For more advanced tasks, use an application installed on your system. For more information, see file-roller-view-archive-file.

### To View a File in an Archive

To view a file in an archive follow the steps described in file-roller-modify-archive-file. If you save the opened file, click Cancel when &app; asks confirmation to update the file in the archive.

### To Test the Integrity of an Archive

Sometimes an archive can be damaged for some reason, to check whether an archive is damaged, choose Archive Test Integrity:

- If the archive contains no errors, &app; opens the Test Result dialog to list each file in the archive, and indicates that each file has status `OK`.

- If the archive contains some error, &app; opens the Test Result dialog displaying the part of the archive contains the error.

A damaged archive can be impossible to extract, this can bring to a loss of data. For this reason you should test the archive integrity before deleting the original files.

If the archive contains encrypted files, &app; asks the password of the archive before performing the test.

Not all the archive types support the integrity testing, the following is the list of archive types that can be tested for integrity: 7-Zip, RAR, ZIP, ACE, ARJ and Zoo.

#### Tip

To test the integrity of an archive that doesn't support the integrity testing, extract all the files from the archive and check that the operation is completed successfully.

## Customizing the Archive Display

You can customize the way that &app; displays the archive contents, as follows:

- Switch between folder view and file view. For more information, see file-roller-view-type.

- Specify the order in which to display files in the list. For more information, see file-roller-view-sort.

- Display additional details about the contents of the archive. For more information, see file-roller-extra-info.

&app; updates the display immediately, when you make any of the above customizations.

### To Set the View Type

If the archive contains folders, you can show the archive contents in either folder view or file view.

#### Folder View

&app; displays the archive contents in folder view by default. To explicitly select folder view, choose View View as a Folder.

In folder view, &app; shows folders in the same way as a file manager shows folders. That is, &app; indicates folders in the display area with a folder icon and the folder name. To view the contents of a folder, double-click on the folder name.

The folderbar, which &app; displays only in folder view, contains the components described in the following table.

Component | Description
Shows icon to navigate backwards in location history list. | Click on this button to navigate backwards in the location history list.
Shows icon to navigate forwards in location history list. | Click on this button to navigate forwards in the location history list.
Shows icon to navigate up one level in folder tree. | Click on this button to navigate up one level in the folder tree.
Shows icon to open the top-level folder in the archive. | Click on this button to open the top-level folder in the archive.
Location | This field shows the full pathname, within the archive, of the current folder. To change to a different level in the folder tree, type the new location in the Location text box then press Return. &app; displays the contents of the new location.

#### File View

To select file view, choose View View All Files.

In file view, &app; displays all files in the archive, including files from subfolders, in a single list.

### To Sort the File List

You can sort the file list by name, size, type, modification date, or location.

To specify a sort order, click on the heading of the corresponding column.

To reverse the sort order, click on the column heading again.

For example, to sort the file list by modification date, click on the Date modified heading. &app; rearranges the file list to display the files by modification date, starting with the earliest. To display the latest files first, click on the Date modified heading again.

&app; always performs a secondary sort based on the file name. In the above example, &app; sorts by name any files that have the same modification date.

### To Display Additional Details

To open the Last Output dialog, choose View Last Output:

- If you tested the archive in the current &app; session, the Last Output dialog displays the results of the last test.

- If you did not test the archive in the current &app; session, the Last Output dialog displays a list of all files in the archive, but does not indicate any status for the files. Instead, the Last Output dialog provides the compressed size of each file and the percentage of compression, and the date and time at which the file was last modified.

## Using the File Manager to Work with an Archive

You can use the file manager to add files to an archive, or to extract files from an archive.

### To Add Files to an Archive by Using the File Manager

You can use the file manager to add files to an archive, in the following ways:

- Drag the files into a &app; window from a file manager window.

- Use the file manager popup menu to add the files to the archive.

To use the file manager popup menu to add files to an archive, perform the following steps:

1. Right-click on the files or folders in a file manager window.

2. Choose Create Archive from the file manager popup menu to display the &app; Create Archive dialog.

3. Enter the archive name, without the file extension, in the Archive text box.

4. Choose the archive type from the drop-down list.

5. Choose the location where to save the archive file, from the Location drop-down list. If the location is not present in the list choose Other... to select it with the Location dialog.

6. Select the required create options clicking on Other Options. For more information about the create options, see file-roller-create-options.

7. Click Create to add the selected files to the root folder of the specified archive.

   To select any of the advanced add options, you must invoke &app; as described in file-roller-to-start.

### To Extract Files From an Archive by Using the File Manager

You can use the file manager to extract files from an archive, in the following ways:

- Drag the files from a &app; window into a file manager window.

- Use the file manager popup menu to extract the files from the archive.

To use the file manager popup menu to extract files from an archive, perform the following steps:

1. Right-click on the archive in a file manager window.

2. Choose Extract Here to extract all of the archive contents into the directory where the archive is located.

If the archive is encrypted, &app; will ask to enter the password before extracting the files.

## Create Options

When creating a new archive, or when converting an existing archive to another format, click on Other Options to specify the following advanced options:

Password

- Type the password that will be used to encrypt the archive. If no password is specified the archive will not be encrypted.

  Not all archive types support encryption. For more information about file encryption, see file-roller-encrypt-files.

Encrypt the file list too

- If this option is selected, the password will be requested even to view the list of files contained in the archive, otherwise it will be requested only to extract the files from the archive. This option is available only if a password is specified.

Split in volumes

- Select this option to split the archive in more files of the specified dimension.

  Only 7-Zip and RAR archives support this feature.

## Add Options

The Add Files and Add a Folder dialogs provide the following option:

Add only if newer

- Select this option to add the specified file to the archive only if the archive does not contain the specified file, or if the archive contains an older version of the specified file. &app; uses the modification date to determine which file is the most recent. If the version of the file in the archive is the most recent, &app; does not add the specified file to the archive.

  If you do not select this option, &app; adds the file to the archive and overwrites the previous archive contents.

  ### Tip

  If you use &app; to create backups, the Add only if newer option is very useful. For example, the archive `backup.tar.gz` contains a week-old backup of your home folder. To update the archive to contain a current backup of your home folder, perform the following steps:

  1. Open the `backup.tar.gz` archive in &app;.

  2. Choose Edit Add to display the Add a Folder dialog.

  3. Select your home folder.

  4. Select the Add only if newer option.

  5. Click Add.

  &app; automatically adds to the archive all files that you created during the last week, and updates all files that you modified during the last week. However, &app; does not remove from the archive the files that you deleted during the last week. The archive update operation is much faster than doing a full backup of your home folder.

### Add to Folder Options

The following options are available in the Add a Folder dialog and allow to automatically select and add all files that satisfy certain criteria:

Include files

- Type a filename pattern in this text box to include files with names that match the specified pattern. See file-roller-pattern for more information about filename patterns.

Exclude files

- Type a filename pattern in this text box to exclude files with names that match the specified pattern. See file-roller-pattern for more information about filename patterns.

Exclude folders

- Type a filename pattern in this text box to exclude folders with names that match the specified pattern. See file-roller-pattern for more information about filename patterns.

Include subfolders

- Select this option to add all files that match the specified pattern, from the current folder and from subfolders.

  The filename, not the subfolder name, must match the specified pattern.

  If you do not select this option, &app; adds the matching files from the current folder only.

Exclude folders that are symbolic links

- Select this option to omit files from folders that are symbolic links. Symbolic links are pointers or shortcuts to other folders.

  If you do not select this option, &app; adds the matching files from folders that are symbolic links.

Save Options

- Click on this button to save the current selection of advanced add options to a file. The Save Options dialog is displayed. Enter a descriptive filename in the Options Name text box, then click Save.

Load Options

- Click on this button to load or delete a previously saved selection of advanced add options. The Load Options dialog is displayed.

  - To load a set of options, select the options file in the list box, then click Apply.

  - To delete a set of options, select the options file in the list box, then click Remove. Click Close to close the Load Options dialog.

Reset Options

- Click on this button to reset the current selection of advanced add options to the default values.

## Extract Options

The Extract dialog provides the following options, which are saved when you quit &app;:

Extract

- Select the files to be extracted:

  All files

- Extract all files from the archive.

Selected files

- Extract the selected files from the archive.

Files

- Extract from the archive all files that match the specified pattern. See file-roller-pattern for more information about filename patterns.

Actions

- Select the following extract options:

  Re-create folders

- Select this option to reconstruct 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, &app; extracts the contents of the subfolder to `/tmp/doc`.

  - If you do not select the Re-create folders option, &app; does not create any subfolders. Instead, &app; extracts all files from the archive, including files from subfolders, to `/tmp`.

Overwrite existing files

- Select this option to overwrite any files in the destination folder that have the same name as the specified files.

  If you do not select this option, &app; 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

- This option is only effective while the Overwrite existing files option is selected.

  Select the Do not extract older files option to extract 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. &app; uses the modification date to determine which file is the most recent. If the version of the file in the archive is older, &app; does not extract the specified file to the destination folder.

  If you do not select the Do not extract older files option while the Overwrite existing files option is selected, &app; extracts the specified file from the archive and overwrites the previous contents of the destination folder.