Working With Archives

When you use Archive Manager to work with an archive, all changes are saved to disk immediately. For example, if you delete a file from an archive, Archive Manager 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 Archive Manager, 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 Archive Manager 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.

3.1. Filename Patterns

Archive Manager 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. Archive Manager 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.

3.2. 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.

Archive Manager 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. Archive Manager 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 Archive Manager does not recognize, the application displays an error message. See Section 1 ― Introduction for a list of supported formats.

3.3. 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.

3.4. 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 Archive Manager extracts the files.

  4. Select the required extract options. For more information about the extract options, see Section 11 ― Extract Options.

  5. Click Extract.

    If all of the files in the archive are protected by a password, and you have not specified it, Archive Manager 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, Archive Manager does not ask for a password. However, Archive Manager extracts only the unprotected files.

    For more information about passwords, see Section 5.1 ― To Encrypt Files in an Archive.

Archive Manager also provides ways of extracting files from an archive in a file manager window, without opening a Archive Manager window. See Section 8 ― Using the File Manager to Work with an Archive 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 Section 5.5 ― To Delete Files From an Archive.

3.5. To Close an Archive

To close the current archive and the current Archive Manager window, choose Archive ▸ Close, or press Ctrl+W.

There is no way to close the current archive but not the Archive Manager window.