Xarchiver crashes or can't find files with [ or ] in their name

[Alan_uk]

Hi. This is a newish install of LL and this is the first time I've used Xarchiver.

1. Just zipped 135 files with 10 errors: "Can't find ........". All the error files have "[" and "]" characters.

2. other folders+subfolders just make Xarchiver abort - no error message, nothing
E.g.  archiving a Wine prefix containing folders: dosdevices and drive_c, and files: .update-timestamp and 3 .reg files. Just aborts. These folders/sub-folders have links in them. Maybe it's trying to follow them?

I've lost confidence in this program already. Is there a better alternative, like WizZip?

[Valtam]

Hello Alan, did you follow the guide in the Help Manual for archiving files?

[Alan_uk]

Hi Valtam

did you follow the guide in the Help Manual for archiving files?

I forgot about that but looked at other on-line guides. Looking at the manual it only shows the archiving process using right click and the menu Create Archive. But the problems remain using that method.

I was trying initially as a test to archive a folder on the desktop and it does not have Create Archive when I right click. However, there is Create Archive option for files.

A. If I open the desktop folder and then right click on a sub-folder then they do have the Create Archive menu option.

B. I then tried to archive the sub-folder  (containing some file names with [ and ] in the names). Xarchiver opens to select the name and destination but when I click Create I get a error window "An error occurred while accessing the archive" but a blank content with no error messages.

C. I then selected another sub-folder (containing names without any [ or ] ). This time it works [providing the default archive name is changed - see E)

D. I then went to the wine folder that was aborting yesterday when using the drag and drop method. This time I tried the right click method but got the same error as B above.

I also discovered:

E. When I right click on a file and select Create Archive then Xarchiver offers an archive name the same as the file name and is happy to create it when I click Create. But when a folder is selected for archive then it wont accept the folder name it offers. When I click Create it moves the target destination inside the folder and clears the archive name. I have to create an archive name that is different to the folder name and reposition the target location. However, I can use the same name if the folder is stored somewhere else. This is like the manual where the folder holiday is archived as holiday.zip but in my case it does work!

So 4 problems:

1. Xarchiver doesn't like files with [ or ] and maybe other characters in the file name

2. No right click Create Archive for folders on the desktop

3. When there is an error  "An error occurred while accessing the archive"  there are no details as to what has gone wrong and what may be causing the problem.

4. Cannot create an archive for a folder with the same name as the folder at the folder location.

Thanks for your patience

Alan

PS After I install LL from the CD I did run Update a number of times. I have now switched software repositories to UK and run the Update again:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree     
Reading state information... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  linux-headers-generic-lts-raring linux-image-generic-lts-raring
The following packages will be upgraded:
  firefox firefox-globalmenu
2 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.

[tonyo]

I always remove xarchiver when installing Linux Lite, and install file-roller instead. Had some extracting problems with xarchiver, and from then i always remove it in a new install.

[Scott(0)]

Hi Alan. What happens if you do a small test zip of just one or two text files?

[Alan_uk]

Thanks Tonyo and Scott. Sorry for the slow response but I've been buried in Samba for the last 2 days

I have installed File Roller and tried the following

File Roller is OK archiving a few plain files
Xarchiver is OK archiving a few plain files
File Roller is OK archiving a a file with [ and ] in the name and a link to a USB stick
Xarchiver is NOT OK archiving a a file with [ and ] in the name but does handle the link to a USB stick
          Xarchiver rejects the file with [ and ] in the name:

Can't find test folder with brackets and link/test file with [ and ]
                  Found    1 error(s)!

Both File Roller and Xarchiver follow the link and archive the content of the USB stick.

I do not want this to happened but just the link to be archived. In the case of archiving the Wine prefix folder, there are links to Z: which is the whole Linux hard disk!! as well as links to my Linux desktop and all it's documents, videos, pictures etc. In fact by following links the archiver could get into a loop repeatedly following the same links.

So File Roller is OK for less complex archiving and will handle file names with [  and ]  and maybe other special characters.

Neither are suitable for archiving complex hierarchies where there is a likelihood of links.

Many thanks
Alan