Tutorial - Enable XArchive to extract and create 7Z archives

[Federico]

7zip is one of the mostly used archive formats nowadays, probably because it's the one wich provides the best compression ratio at the moment.
Anyways, I think that it's important to be able to extract any possible archive format, especially when using a system for surfing the Internet.
I don't know about you but it bothers me a lot when I find something on the web which is only given as a 7z archive and I cannot extract it directly from Easy.
I don't know if this topic has already been faced on the forum but since I found a solution I thought that making everybody aware of that would have been a good idea.

So basically, XArchive makes use of some wrappers for extracting some file formats (7z, ace, arj and others). One may think that the wrapper for the 7z format is missing for some reason at first glance, but this isn't the case, as you can see that all the wrappers sh files are there inside the folder /usr/lib/xarchive/wrappers.

So what's the point here, then? The point is that what's missing is not a wrapper but a program. A wrapper is in fact nothing else than a program which makes use of another program. In this case, what's missing is a program which enables the system to extract 7z archives, called 7za .

After a little bit of research and attempts I found that it is included inside the Debian package p7zip-full . It includes in fact the 7z and 7za commands. It can be easily downloaded and installed from here: https://packages.debian.org/bookworm/p7zip-full . Just download and install it (the version for the amd64 architecture, for sure) and XArchive will become immediately able to extract and create 7z archives.

Now: there is nothing like that on the EasyOS official repository and I don't know why. This would be for sure a nice addition, if not pre-installed, at least available on the repository.
Could this be a licensing problem? I even thought. And I don't really understand how, since 7-zip is a free software as far as I know and even Debian itself includes this package.

[mikewalsh]

@Federico :-

Do please remember one thing. EasyOS is one man's personal project. Now, I know that Barry's enthusiasm for his work knows no bounds, but.....asking a single individual to maintain an entire repository stuffed full with applications and/or utilities IS asking rather a lot, wouldn't you agree?

I'm quite sure that if you yourself were to create the package, then submitted it for approval, Barry would in all likelihood be more than happy to add it to the EasyOS repo.....

Just a suggestion, like..!

Mike.

[Federico]

Despite the fact that it's basically not possible nowadays to operate with a compression program which isn't capable of handling the 7z format, this was never meant to be criticism but just support for the users and eventually suggestion / proposal.
I'm probably one of the most enthusiast persons here about EasyOS. I just try to be helpful.

Here is a performance comparison of common compression file format algorithms:

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8051

7za is actually the most widely used format for the simple fact that it's the top performer and people try to save as much space as possible, especially for saving server upload and download times. This is an old article, for sure, but things have gone converging more and more for the 7za format during the last 2 decades or so.

https://openbenchmarking.org/test/pts/compress-7zip <----

Thank you.

[Caramel]

Thanks @Federico .
Before testing i have noob questions about the installation of a deb package. Can the package be uninstalled? Will it be listed in PPM/PKGget?

[Federico]

@ Caramel

in order to uninstall a package, just open Menu --> Configuration --> PKGget Package Manager.
The packages which have been manually installed will be listed in the lower right window labeled "Installed Packages".
To uninstall any of them just click on it and the system will ask to proceed uninstalling.
The packages are not shown in alphabetical order, but just in the order with which they were installed. Also, there is no way to enlarge the window to my knowledge (so be patient if you have to search through a long list).
Great attention should be put in installing packages.
Nothing which could break the system's integrity should be installed, generally speaking. Anyone who installs foreign packages (packages not coming from the official repository) is on his own.
It is also not adviceable to install different versions of packages which are already installed.
If the system contains data or settings which are valuable for the user, it is highly recommended to save a backup of the whole system before installing non-tested packages.

[Caramel]

Test.
I have clicked on the deb package, validated the installation. The package was added to PKGget.

I have never used XArchive to create a file. And for now, it remains obscure

[Federico]

For creating an archive using XArchive, it is pretty straightforward:

1) Run XArchive
2) Press the button labeled New
3) Navigate to the folder where you want to create your archive. For example: /files/downloads .
4) Choose a name and an extension for your archive. For example: somename.7z
5) Press the button labeled open in the lower right corner of the window.
6) In the new dialogue window, navigate to the files and / or folders which you want to add to your archive, select them (also more than one at a time, using the Ctrl key) and press the button with the green arrow turned downwards labeled Add to the list.
7) When your list is filled up with the files and folders you wish to add to your archive, just press the OK button in the lower right corner of the screen.
8) Your archive will be created. That's it.

Hope this helps.

[Caramel]

For creating an archive using XArchive, it is pretty straightforward:

1) Run XArchive
2) Press the button labeled New
3) Navigate to the folder where you want to save your archive. For example: /files/downloads .
4) Choose a name and an extension for your archive. For example: somename.7z
5) Press the button labeled open in the lower right corner of the window.
6) In the new dialogue window, navigate to the files and / or folders which you want to add to your archive, select them (also more than one at a time, using the Ctrl key) and press the button with the green arrow turned downwards labeled Add to the list.
7) When your list is filled up with the files and folders you wish to add to your archive, just press the OK button in the lower right corner of the screen.
8) Your archive will be created. That's it.

Hope this helps.

Thanks. Very clear.

[BarryK]

Thanks for the info about p7zip!

Yes, I will compile it in OE and it will be in PKGget.
Ready for the coming-real-soon Easy 5.6.5.

Might even have it built-in, so no need to install it.

[Federico]

Thank you very much Barry.
As usual, you're making me happy and satisfied, as well as all other users I hope.

[BarryK]

Done, see blog:

https://bkhome.org/news/202312/p7zip-co ... in-oe.html