Introduction
Archive Manager (File Roller) is Ubuntu's default application for handling the creation, modification and extraction of archives. File Roller supports a wide range of archive formats, and is well integrated into the Nautilus File Browser. Some formats are not installed by default in Ubuntu.
Usage
|
File Roller does not have an application launcher that can be launched by itself due to it's integration with the File Browser. To launch it by itself, press Alt+F2 and type file-roller.
If an archive format is supported, double clicking on the file will automatically open the Archive Manager. You may add files and folders as well as extract existing ones.
Within the File Browser, archives can be created and extracted by using the right click context menu. Existing archives have an Extract Here option, which will extract the archive's folders into the current folder. Selected files and folders have a Create Archive option, which allows you to set where to make the archive and what format it should be.
Supported Formats
Installed by default in Ubuntu
The following archive formats are well supported, and installed by default in File Roller:
Format |
File extension |
Note |
Tar |
.tar |
|
gzip |
.tar.gz, .tgz, .gz |
Compressed .tar or compressed single file |
bzip |
.tar.bz, .tbz, .bz |
Compressed .tar or compressed single file |
bzip2 |
.tar.bz2, .tbz2, .bz2 |
Compressed .tar or compressed single file |
LZMA |
.tar.lzma, .lzma |
Compressed .tar or compressed single file |
ZIP |
.zip |
|
JAR |
.jar, .ear, .war |
|
CD images |
.iso |
ISO-9660 format |
Not installed by default in Ubuntu
The following formats require additional packages to be used. They may have incomplete support, with some requiring non-free software to have full support.
Format |
File extension |
Requires |
7zip |
.7z |
p7zip package, which doesn't provide multi-volume support. |
shar |
.shar |
sharutils package |
ARJ |
.arj |
arj package |
ACE |
.ace |
unace package, providing read-only support |
RAR |
.rar |
unrar (non-free) or unrar-free package to extract .rar archives. |
LRZ |
.lrz |
lrzip package |
LHA |
.lzh, .lha |
lhasa package |
compress |
.Z, .tar.Z, .taz |
ncompress package |
lZO |
.lzo, .tar.lzo, .tzo |
lzop package |
Alternatives
Ark - Ark manages various archive formats, including tar, gzip, bzip2, rar and zip, as well as CD-ROM images. Ark can be used to browse, extract, create, and modify archives. This package is part of the KDE SC utilities module.
Xarchiver - Xarchiver is a lightweight desktop independent GTK+ frontend for manipulating 7z, arj, bzip2, gzip, rar, tar, zip, rpm and deb files. It allows you to create archives and add, extract, and delete files from them. Password protected archives in the arj, 7z, rar and zip formats are supported.