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Thread: Best Compression Tool As of Ubuntu 10.04

  1. #1
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    Best Compression Tool As of Ubuntu 10.04

    I used to use PeaZip for the job, but it's not a very good application. It doesn't depend on other compression libs in the repository but maintains its own; it's more like a program for Windows got ported to Linux.

    I just had a fresh install of Lucid and would like to find a better tool handling the job. What I'm looking for is an application that can handle .7z, .rar formats, has a not-so-bad GUI, and depends on compression libs in the repository. Any recommendations?

  2. #2
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    Re: Best Compression Tool As of Ubuntu 10.04

    If you would like a GUI compression program that doesn't act like a Windows program, you should use the default compression application that comes with Ubuntu, File Roller. While File Roller is not listed in the applications menu, it is the default app that pops up whenever you double-click an archive. However, it does not support formats such as .rar, .7z, .xz, etc by default, which is why many users end up using apps like PeaZip.

    However, there is an easy fix for this. File Roller will support any compression format installed in Ubuntu. Install the package p7zip-full, and presto! Now Ubuntu will have support for .7z, rar, etc. You can open/make archives right in the file manager. Additionally, if you would like support for the up-and-coming .xz format (basically a more modern version of .lzma), install xz-utils, and you'll be able to open .tar.xz files.

    While p7zip-full won't handle things like PEA, *PAQ, Arc, and some other formats PeaZip supports, it will handle rar, 7z, and other common formats easily. Coupled with p7zip-full and
    xz-utils, Ubuntu will support all the archive formats you're likely to stumble upon.

    EDIT: To correct the above, if you want rar support in File Roller, you'll need to install unrar as well.
    Last edited by Kulshrax; June 15th, 2010 at 11:15 PM.

  3. #3
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    Jul 2009
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    Re: Best Compression Tool As of Ubuntu 10.04

    I have 7zip installed, but every time I try to open a rar file the archive manager tells me:

    Could not create the archive
    Archive type not supported.

    What am I doing wrong?

    James

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
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    Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    Re: Best Compression Tool As of Ubuntu 10.04

    In synaptic, make sure you have unrar installed. Click here to install: apt:unrar
    Ubuntu isn't perfect, but neither are we.
    "Life is a dangerous activity. One hundred percent of participants end up dead."
    Symlinks to hard links | Ultimate Minecraft

  5. #5
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    Re: Best Compression Tool As of Ubuntu 10.04

    Oops, I forgot to mention that in my original post. By default, p7zip does not support rar files because rar is a non-free format. However, support can be added by installing either p7zip-rar or unrar.

    If you're using File Roller to open archives, you have to install unrar to get rar support in the GUI.

    However, if you're using p7zip on the command line, you'll need to install p7zip-rar to get rar support. Note than installing p7zip-rar does NOT give File Roller rar support. For that, you need unrar. p7zip-rar is for the command line only.

  6. #6
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    Re: Best Compression Tool As of Ubuntu 10.04

    Thanks for your very helpful info Kulshrax! =)

  7. #7
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    Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    Re: Best Compression Tool As of Ubuntu 10.04

    Can you please a tool which actually compresses?? The tools I tried, pzip and fileroller, all they do is compress pictures from 11.8mb to 11.7!!

  8. #8
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    Re: Best Compression Tool As of Ubuntu 10.04

    Quote Originally Posted by abdusamed View Post
    Can you please a tool which actually compresses?? The tools I tried, pzip and fileroller, all they do is compress pictures from 11.8mb to 11.7!!
    While you have not provided any specifics on your specific circumstances, I will try to answer your question.

    You said you are trying to compress pictures. However, you are getting very poor compression ratios. This is because the pictures are in all likelihood ALREADY COMPRESSED!

    Most digital photographs are stored in the JPEG format. This format already employs lossy compression algorithms to compress the image, producing a small filesize. This means that each JPEG file is already compressed. No compression utility will be able to compress it any further.

    The same holds true with PNG images, GIF images, or any image in a compressed format. If the image is already in a compressed format, it cannot be compressed further.
    Last edited by Kulshrax; November 20th, 2010 at 04:21 AM.

  9. #9
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    Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    Re: Best Compression Tool As of Ubuntu 10.04

    Quote Originally Posted by abdusamed View Post
    Can you please a tool which actually compresses?? The tools I tried, pzip and fileroller, all they do is compress pictures from 11.8mb to 11.7!!
    pictures, music, and movies dont't compress very well (8% at the most)
    if you need a fast live cd for testing or anything really:
    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...70#post9715370
    boots live in just 82MB of ram, no swap!

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
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    Pakistan
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    Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    Re: Best Compression Tool As of Ubuntu 10.04

    well.. i doubt it cause recently during my data backup using winzip to create zipx archives, it was able to in some causes compress data with 2.5 gb less than original folder size!!!! Picture too were relatively compress very well. Also, I have came across with some tar archives which are kb in size but extract to serveral mbs! I was never able compress anything like that in ubuntu. Does pzip really compress?

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