The Ark Handbook

13 Pages·2016·0.29 MB·English

The Ark Handbook
Matt Johnston
Henrique Pinto
Ragnar Thomsen
TheArkHandbook
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Contents
1 Introduction 5
2 UsingArk 6
2.1 OpeningArchives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.1.1 ArchiveOperations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.1.2 ArchiveComments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.2 WorkingwithFiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2.1 EditingFiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.3 ExtractingFiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.3.1 TheExtractdialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.4 CreatingArchivesandAddingFiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.4.1 Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.4.2 PasswordProtection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.4.3 Multi-volumeArchive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3 UsingArkintheFilemanager 11
4 AdvancedBatchMode 12
5 CreditsandLicense 13
Abstract
ArkisanarchivemanagerbyKDE.
TheArkHandbook
Chapter 1
Introduction
Arkisaprogramforviewing,extracting,creatingandmodifyingarchives. Arkcanhandlevari-
ousarchiveformatssuchastar,gzip,bzip2,zip,rar,7zip,xz,rpm,cab,deb,xarandAppImage
(supportforcertainarchiveformatsdependsontheappropriatecommand-lineprogramsbeing
installed).
InordertosuccessfullyuseArk,youneedKDEFrameworks5. Thelibrarylibarchiveversion3.1
oraboveisneededtohandlemostarchivetypes,includingtar,compressedtar,rpm,debandcab
archives. Tohandleotherfileformats,youneedtheappropriatecommandlineprograms,such
aszipinfo,zip,unzip,rar,unrar,7z,lsar,unarandlrzip.
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Chapter 2
Using Ark
2.1 Opening Archives
ToopenanarchiveinArk,chooseOpen... (Ctrl+O)fromtheArchivemenu. Youcanalsoopen
archive files by dragging and dropping from Dolphin. Archive files should be associated with
Ark,soyoucanalsorightclickafileinDolphinandselectOpenwithArktoopenitorselectan
extractactionforthisfile.
IfyouhaveenabledtheinformationpanelintheSettingsmenuadditionalinformationaboutthe
selectedfoldersorfilesinthearchiveisdisplayed.
2.1.1 ArchiveOperations
Various operations can be performed for an opened archive by using the Archive menu. For
example, you can save the archive with a different name using Save As.... Archive properties
suchastype,sizeandMD5hashcanbeviewedusingthePropertiesitem.
Arkhastheabilitytotestarchivesforintegrity. Thisfunctionalityiscurrentlyavailableforzip,
rarand7zarchives. ThetestactioncanbefoundintheArchivemenu.
2.1.2 ArchiveComments
Arkcanhandlecommentsembeddedinzipandrararchives.
Commentsembeddedinziparchivesareautomaticallydisplayed.
UsingrararchivesyoucanmodifyacommentwiththeactionsAddCommentorEditcomment
(Alt+C)fromtheArchivemenu.
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NOTE
Thecommentmenuitemisenabledonlyforrararchives.
Toremoveacommentfromarararchivedeletethetextinthecommentwindow.
2.2 Working with Files
Once an archive has been opened, you can perform various operations on the files inside the
archive. By selecting a file and using the File menu, you can choose different operations to
perform:
• Preview(Ctrl+P)willopenthefilewithArk’sinternalviewer. Thisisafastread-onlyviewer,
butdoesnotsupportallfiletypes.
• Openwillopenthefileintheassociatedapplicationforthatfiletype.
• OpenWith... allowsyoutochoosewhichapplicationtoopenthefilewith.
• Rename (Alt+F2) This action allows to change names of both files and folders. As in the
Dolphinfilemanager,thisactioncanbecalledviaashortcutandrenamingisdoneviainline
editing. There are also filename checks provided, which prevent usage of invalid characters
suchas/ ,. and.. infilenames.
• Delete(Del)willremovethecurrentlyselectedfile(s)fromthearchive. Notethatthisactionis
undoable.
• Extract (Ctrl+E) opens a submenu with previously accessed folders, and you can choose to
quicklyextractintoanyoftheseorbrowsetoanon-listedfolder. Seethenextsectionformore
detailsonextraction.
• Cut(Ctrl+X)/Copy(Ctrl+C)/Paste(Ctrl+V):Asintypicalfilemanagers,moving, pasting
and copying are provided. Users can move or copy files from different folders (which are
expandableinthetreeview)andpastethemtothesamedestinationatonce. Afoldercanbe
copiedintoitself, butcannotbemoved. Therearealsochecksforconflictingfilenames: You
won’t be able to copy or move files into a folder that has entries with the same names - that
couldleadtodataloss.
• Add Files (Alt+A) This action can be used to add files at any location within the archive. If
youselectafolderandusethisaction,fileswillbeaddedtotheselectedfolder. Otherwise,the
newfileswillbeaddedtotherootofthearchive.
2.2.1 EditingFiles
If you edit and save a file which you opened using Open or Open With..., Ark will ask you if
youwanttoupdatethefileinthearchive. IfyouanswerYes, thearchivewillbeupdatedwith
thesavedfile.
2.3 Extracting Files
OnceanarchivehasbeenopenedinArk,itcanbeextracted.ThiscanbedonebyselectingExtract
fromtheFilemenu.Thisopensasubmenuwithpreviouslyaccessedfolders,andyoucanchoose
toquicklyextractintoanyofthese. Alternatively,selectthesubmenuitemExtractTo... toopen
the Extract dialog, where you can set various options that affect the extraction. See below for
informationontheavailableoptionsintheExtractdialog.
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YoucanalsousetheExtractbuttoninthetoolbartoaccessthesameextractionoptions.
To extract the entire archive, you can select Extract All from the Archive menu. This action
unconditionallyextractsallfilesinthearchive.
Itispossibletoextractfilesandfoldersbysimplydraggingthemwiththemousetoafolderin
Dolphin.
Note: Extractingfilesfromanarchivedoesnotchangethearchiveanditscontents.
2.3.1 TheExtractdialog
TheExtractdialogallowsyoutochoosewherethefileswillbeextractedto. Thedefaultlocation
isthefolderthearchiveisin. ThedialogcanalsobeopenedbypressingCtrl+E.
You can specify to extract the files into a subfolder. The default name of this subfolder is the
archivenamewithoutthefilenameextension, butyoucaneditittoyourneeds. Ifyouwantto
preservepathswhenextracting,selectthePreservepathswhenextractingoption. Youmayalso
choosetoopenthedestinationfolderinDolphinorcloseArkoncetheextractioniscomplete.
Ifoneormorefilesinthearchivelistarehighlighted,youcanalsoselectwhichfilestoextract:
• Selectedfilesonlyextractsonlythefileswhichhavebeenselected.
• Allfilesextractstheentirecontentsofthearchive.
2.4 Creating Archives and Adding Files
TocreateanewarchiveinArk,chooseNew(Ctrl+N)fromtheArchivemenu.
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Youcanthentypethenameofthearchive,withtheappropriateextension(tar.gz,zip,7z,etc.)
orselectasupportedformatintheFiltercomboboxandchecktheAutomaticallyaddfilename
extensionoption.
Toaddfilesorfolderstothenewarchive,chooseAddFiles... fromtheArchivemenu.
Analternativewaytoaddfilestoanarchiveistodragoneormorefilesfrome.g. Dolphininto
themainArkwindow,anditwillbeaddedtothecurrentarchive. Notethatfilesaddedinthis
waywillalwaysbeaddedtotherootdirectoryofthearchive.
Additionaloptionsarepresentedincollapsiblegroupsatthebottomofthedialog.
2.4.1 Compression
Ahighervaluegeneratessmallerarchives,butresultsinlongercompressionanddecompression
times. The default compression level proposed by Ark is usually a good compromise between
sizeand(de)compressionspeed. Formostformatstheminimumcompressionlevelisequivalent
tojuststoringthefiles,i.e. applyingnocompression.
Forrar,7zandziparchivesyoucanselectbetweendifferentcompressionmethods.
Notethatusingcompressionmethodsotherthanthepre-selecteddefaultsmaylimitcompatibil-
itywithfilearchivers. Forexample,openingziparchiveswithcompressionmethodsotherthan
‘Deflate’requiresnewerarchivingsoftware.
2.4.2 PasswordProtection
Ifyoucreateazip,rar,7zipandjararchiveyoucanprotectitwithapassword. Currently,only
thezipformatsupportsmultipleencryptionmethods. Forotherformatsthatsupportonlyone
encryptionmethod,themethodisshowninthedropdownbox.
Other encryption methods than the default ZipCrypto might not be supported by all file
archivers.
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Choose whether to require the password before showing the list of files. This is called header
encryptionandisavailableonlywiththerarand7zipformats. Headerencryptionisenabledby
default(whenavailable),inordertoofferthemaximumprotectionfornoviceusers.
2.4.3 Multi-volumeArchive
Withthezip,rarand7zformatsyoucancreatemulti-volumearchives,alsoknownasmulti-part
orsplitarchives.
A multi-volume archive is one big compressed archive split into several files. This feature is
usefulifthemaximumfilesizeislimited,e.g.bythecapacityofastoragemediumorthemaximal
sizeofanemailwithattachments.
To create a multi-volume archive, check the Create multi-volume archive checkbox and set a
maximumVolumesizeinthedialog. ThenaddallfilestothearchiveandArkwillautomatically
generate the required number of archive volumes. Depending on the selected format the files
haveanextensionwithconsecutivelynumberingschemee.g. xxx.7z.001,xxx.7z.002orxxx.zi
p.001,xxx.zip.002orxxx.part1.rar,xxx.part2.raretc..
Toextractamulti-volumearchive,putallarchivefilesintoonefolderandopenthefilewiththe
lowestextensionnumberinArkandallotherpartsofthesplitarchivewillbeopenedautomati-
cally.
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