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Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,592  

[Solved] xarchiver 0.5.4.14 issue

Hello:

I am attempting to use xarchiver 0.5.4.14 to create an encrypted / password protected file containing a QR image but the application has no option for doing that, no matter what file extension I chose.

From what I can see, all dependencies are met.

I'd appreciate any pointers.

Thanks in advance.

Best,

A.

Last edited by Altoid (2024-01-15 20:37:55)

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,500  

Re: [Solved] xarchiver 0.5.4.14 issue

Have you seen any evidence that xarchiver can do anything with encryption? I'm not finding it with google and manpages. I know you can use encryption with zip/unzip. I usually use gpg if I want to encrypt a file.

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,592  

Re: [Solved] xarchiver 0.5.4.14 issue

Hello:

... any evidence that xarchiver can do anything with encryption?

Yes.

What I meant was encryption or password.
Sorry if I expressed myself incorrectly.

https://xarchiver.sourceforge.net/doc/ch04s02.html

For the time being, I made a *.pdf in Acrobat 7 (XPSP3 VM) with a strong password.

Edit:

It would seem that xarchiver is (and has been) definitely abandoned for the longest while.

There are open bugs from 2008 and then there is this:

https://sourceforge.net/p/xarchiver/bugs/97/#e700

Thank you for your email but Xarchiver is definitely abandoned as there are
better archivers out there.

Giuseppe Torelli is the author.
https://xarchiver.sourceforge.net/

Any suggestions for a small footprint front end like xarchiver?

Thanks in advance.

Best,

A.

Last edited by Altoid (2024-01-06 11:46:07)

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,500  

Re: [Solved] xarchiver 0.5.4.14 issue

Any suggestions for a small footprint front end like xarchiver?

I was about to ask you the same thing. So I asked the Duck instead, and top choices seem to be PeaZip (not in debian/devuan) or Engrampa.

On my full-desktop xfce system, engrampa wants to add 15mb and file-roller wants to add 21. Ark wants to add 200mb, but that's because it needs a lot of qt stuff that isn't installed. On my minimal lxqt system, ark wants 90mb, lxqt-archiver wants 7mb, xarchiver wants 1.7mb.

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,592  

Re: [Solved] xarchiver 0.5.4.14 issue

Hello:

... was about to ask you the same ...

Ahh ...

I had a look but found more or less the same.
Not at all convinced for the same reason.
ie: bloat

xarchiver is very fast, very lean and still works.
Not many abandoned applications can say the same.
eg: WiCD

I then came across ib/xarchiver:

Seems it is a ... continuation of the Xfce master branch. 
But not a fork? Rather confusing, at least for me.

https://www.linuxlinks.com/xarchiver-fr … ing-tools/
https://github.com/ib/xarchiver#readme

There is no .deb package so has to be compiled, something 'ordinary' Dev1ers such as I will have to get used to soon enough.

I'd appreciate it if you could have a look and let me know what you think.

Thanks in advance.

Best,

A.

Last edited by Altoid (2024-01-06 20:48:47)

alexkemp

Member

Registered: 2018-05-14

Posts: 357  

Re: [Solved] xarchiver 0.5.4.14 issue

What's wrong with 7z ('7-Zip') (Website / Wiki)? Teeny tiny and with the best compression on the 'net. Downside is that it does not do any encryption, nor even store Linux file attributes. What you have to do is store as "file.tar.7z" (like gzip, but a separate tar operation, then 7-zip it). Y'know, small apps that each do one thing, chained together. The Linux way.

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,592  

Re: [Solved] xarchiver 0.5.4.14 issue

Hello:

What's wrong with 7z

I have not looked at it, but I was looking for a front end to the applications I have installed.

Thanks for your input.

Best,

A.

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,592  

Re: [Solved] xarchiver 0.5.4.14 issue

Hello:

xarchiver is very fast, very lean and still works.

Seems I have made some progress ...

See this bug report against PCManFM from long ago, aparently overlooked:

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo … bug=932461
ie: File -> Compress would not work in PCManFM 1.3.1-1

So I followed the workaround instructions and edited /usr/share/libfm/archivers.list:

[xarchiver]
# create=xarchiver --add-to %F       # create command is wrong
create=xarchiver --compress %F
extract=xarchiver --extract %F
extract_to=xarchiver --extract-to %d %F

Now compress works and I can choose from a boatload of file types.
Talk about options.  8^°

But still no joy with Action -> Enter password, which remains greyed out.
Cannot find any information on that.

Maybe I would have to see if there is a PCManFM backport for beowulf?

Best,

A.

Altoid

Member

Registered: 2017-05-07

Posts: 1,592  

Re: [Solved] xarchiver 0.5.4.14 issue

Hello:

I have finally made progress with xarchiver and encryption.

For better or worse, the process of adding a password to protect a compressed file using xarchiver is not too at all intuitive.

To wit:

If you open PCManFM, point to select a file and right-click/select 'Compress ...' and save it, you get exactly that.
A compressed file.

/rant start
Now ...
Do you want an extra serving of password with that?
Forget it, not on the menu.
/rant end

You have to do it the proper way:

Step 1.
Open up the xarchiver application
Applications -> Accesories -> xarchiver
Archive -> New

Step 2.
Add a name, a location to save to and and hit 'Create'
You now you have an empty *.zip file* with a name and the xarchiver UI open. 
* this provided you have chosen the default compression file type as zip in Preferences -> Preferred archive format.

Step 3.
Now ...
Action -> Add gets you the 'Add files' window where in the 'Selection' tab you can choose a file and whether to store full paths or not.

Right next to it is the 'Options' tab with the 'Actions' | 'Compression' | 'Encryption Options'.

The rest is straightforward.

Cannot imagine why pointing to select a file in PCManFM and right-clicking/selecting 'Compress ...' does not take you directly Step 3.
Maybe it is a PacManFM thing?

Right ...

Have you seen any evidence that xarchiver can do anything with encryption?

The answer is yes.
Pity that finding out how it had to be done proved to be an ordeal worthy of a much better cause.

But make no mistake, this may probably be the fastest/lightest and most versatile archiving utility for Linux.
It is mature and still works a wonder, which is why I have insisted on using it.

Problem solved.

Best,

A.