
                    The FAR File and Archive Manager
                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                     Archiver support configuration
                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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1. Introduction
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   Archiver support in FAR means that you can create, view and modify
archives of different types. The most popular archive types are RAR, ZIP,
ARJ, HA and CAB. A comprehensive description of various archivers,
comparison tests and links to Web sites of companies that produce archives
can be found at the following Web site (Russian):
http://www.compression.ru/arctest

   If all the capabilities described above work fine on your computer, you
can read no further.

   Just like many other features of FAR, archiver support is implemented
with plugins. The most popular plugins providing archive support are
MultiArc and 7-zip.

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2. MultiArc.
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   This is a standard plugin supplied with FAR. It implements archiver
support in the following way:

   - Viewing archive contents is done by the plugin itself, through the
respective plugin extension module (<ArchiveType>.fmt) or by calling
(automatically and invisibly for the user) external utility programs.

   - To create or modify archives, external archiver programs are used. In
order to make it possible to use those programs, MultiArc must be able to
locate them. This usually means that all archivers are stored in a single
directory that is listed in the environment variable %PATH% (if you do not
understand this, consult your system administrator or another computer
specialist).

The most commonly used archivers are:

  - RAR. The file rar.exe from the WinRAR distribution is used
    (http://rarlab.com/).
    By default, rar.fmt is configured for RAR 2.5 or later.

    Technical note:

       To get a listing from RAR archives with an encrypted header the
       UnRAR.dll is used (if the library is found in the path). Because of
       limitations of the UnRAR library the last access and modification
       dates will be empty.

  - ARJ. The file arj32.exe from the archive distribution is used
    (http://www.arjsoftware.com/).
    By default, ARJ.FMT is configured for 32-bit arj32 3.08 and higher.

  - ZIP. Many ZIP archivers exist, but it is recommended to use the  32-bit
    console PKZip archiver - "PKZip Command Line".
    http://plugring.farmanager.com/downld/files/arc/utils/pkzipc_40.rar
    By default, zip.fmt is configured for 32-bit pkzip 4 and higher.

    Technical note:

      PKZip version 4 or later stores additional information on the creation,
      last modification and last access times for each file. The time is
      stored as UTC (Universal Time Coordinated). If such information is
      present in the archive, FAR uses it to display the times, after
      converting from UTC to local time. If the archiver used to unpack
      the files doesn't support this additional information, the timestamps
      of the files extracted from the archive may differ from the timestamps
      FAR shows for files in the archive.

  - HA. It is recommended to use a 32-bit Windows version of this archiver,
    that can be downloaded, for example, from this site:
    http://www.moris.ru/~spinoza/download/ha_nt.zip.

  - CAB. It is recommended to use the MsCab archiver (see
    http://plugring.farmanager.com/cgi-bin/downld.cgi?Draw=List&Select=PlugIn&SelectPlugIn=310).
    The default options of Cab.fmt are configured to use this archiver.

  - GZIP. You should download a Windows 9x/NT binary from the official site
    of the program - http://www.gzip.org/. Out of the entire distribution,
    only the file gzip.exe is needed.
    http://plugring.farmanager.com/downld/files/arc/utils/gzip32.zip

  - TAR. The Win32 port of GNU TAR 1.12 should be used.
    http://plugring.farmanager.com/downld/files/arc/utils/tar32.rar

  - BZIP2. Version 1.0 or later should be used. It can be downloaded from
    the official homepage of the program.
    http://www.bzip.org/

  - ACE. You should download the distribution from  http://winace.com.  The
    file ace32.exe is used (Commandline Ace).

  - JAR (.J). Version 1.02 (32 bit) or later should be used. It can be
    downloaded from the official homepage: http://www.arjsoftware.com/

  - LZH. It is recommended to use a 32-bit Windows version of this archiver,
    that can be downloaded, for example, from this site:
    http://plugring.farmanager.com/downld/files/arc/utils/lha32.rar

  - many other archivers can be downloaded from the following Web site:
    http://ftp.elf.stuba.sk/packages/pub/pc/pack/

   Advantages: the MultiArc plugin supports dozens of archive types and
other files with a structure defined by some rules. It is also extensible,
meaning that support for almost any archiver can be added if necessary.

   Disadvantages: the archivers supporting all archive types that you use
must be installed on your computer.

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3. 7-zip
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   This plugin (it can be downloaded from http://www.7-zip.org) supports
only the following archive types: 7z, arj, bzip2, cab, cpio, gzip, rar,
rpm, tar and zip. Unlike MultiArc, 7-zip contains all the necessary code
for supporting these archive types and does not require any additional
archivers.

   Advantages: it is not required to install the archivers separately, and
consequently, the plugin can be used for creating and modifying archives
almost immediately after the installation. Can be used together with
MultiArc.

   Disadvantages: few supported archive types.


                                     [FAR manager development group]
