There may be multiple solutions for this issue. You may be able to compress the file for instance, depending on the file type. This works well with uncompressed file types like txt, and not at all with already compressed file types like jpg or avi.

For the compressing, you could use a program like 7-zip. This program is also handy for the next option: Splitting the file into smaller parts. Here is how you do that in detail.

Start 7-zip after installation. Use the location bar to navigate to the folder that contains the large file on your system. Right-click the file and select the Split operation from the program’s context menu.

This opens a new configuration window where you need to specify the destination for the split files and the maximum size of each volume.

You can select one of the pre-configured values or enter your own into the form directly. Add M to the end if you want to specify the file size in Megabytes.

7-Zip splits the file based on the configuration. You end up with files ending with 001, 002, 003 in the selected directory.

You can use 7-Zip, or any compatible software, to merge the files again. With 7-zip, you would simply right-click the first part of the split file (the 001 file) and select Combine files from the options to do so.

This method be problematic if the user who receives the files does not have such a software or does not know how to use it.

The alternative here is to create a self extracting file instead. Only problem is that 7-zip does not support this operation. You can either create a self-extracting file, or you can split the file but not both.

Commercial software like WinRar can do that on the other hand. WinRar is capable of splitting files into smaller parts and creating a self-extracting archive at the same time.

I’m not aware of a freeware that can create a multi-part self-extracting archive. If you know of a software that can do that let me know in the comments.

Update: The free portable software GSplit can create multi-part self-extracting archives. You select the block size under Type and Size in the program interface.

The SFX option is activated under Self-Uniting > Properties.

You can download GSplit from the official homepage. (thanks Shinjie)

WobZip is one of those services. The beta service supports a wide variety of archiving formats, including the popular zip, 7z, gzip, rar and tar, but also formats that are not used as much, including bzip2, rpm or deb.

The service supports files with a maximum file size of 100 Megabytes. Files can be loaded from the local computer system, or from an url so that the archive does not need to be downloaded first before it is transferred to WobZip. Password protected archives are supported in both cases as well.

wobzip

To unzip an archive the user would either use the file browser on the Wobzip website, or switch to the url mode alternative to point WobZip to an archive on the Internet. A password can be added in case it is needed to unpack the archive.

Wobzip retrieves the archive, unpacks it remotely and displays the file contents in the web browser on a results page.

uncompress online

Each file in the archive is available for download separately. There is no option to download all unpacked files at once. A download manager may be used for that purpose. Wobzip does however support the download of all files as a zip archive, which is probably the most widely used format.

Wobzip supports direct requests in the form

http://wobzip.org/?type=url&url=FILE_URL_HERE&p=PASSWORD_HERE

WobZip offers fast unpacking of archives from the Internet or the local computer system. It is recommended to use the service only for archives that are not security or privacy related, as the files are uploaded to the server before they are unpacked and offered to the user.

Standard unpackers like WinRar, WinZip or 7-zip are able to handle most of the operations with ease. They usually fail on the other hand when it comes to extracting lots of archives, especially if those are stored in multiple folders.

This article reviews four specialized programs that are capable of extracting multiple archives at once.

Extract Now

Extract Now is the only program of the four that has been reviewed before by Ghacks. That was back in 2007. The developer has continued to develop the software and extended the functionality by a lot. The basic functionality however has remained the same. Archives can be added for extraction by dragging and dropping folders or files into the Extract Now interface or by selecting them in Windows Explorer and using the context menu link to send them to the program.

• Supports most major archive formats
• Drag and drop files or folders from Windows Explorer to extract them
• Simple user interface and sleek design in a small package
• Recursively search through folders for archives (Just drag and drop them)
• Delete files or close program after extraction options
• Windows explorer file associations for all supported archive types
• Extract files into current directory, named folder, or favorite folder of choice
• System tray icon on Minimize and Always on top features
• Integrates with Windows Explorer via special context menu items

Extract Now supports a variety of formats including zip, rar, gzip, tar, iso and dozens of others. All archives that have been found can be extracted automatically or by clicking on the Extract button in the main program interface.

extract now

The software comes with lots of options that make the whole extracting process more comfortable. Extracted archives can for instance be deleted so that they do not have to be deleted manually in the end.

Extract Now is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of most Microsoft Windows operating systems.

UnPacker

Unpacker uses a completely different design but provides almost the same functionality that Extract Now offers. The program does not support drag and drop but selection of files or folders from the file browser in its interface.

Zip-support added!

Possible to add archives in archives directly to the queue

Added option for ignoring the found window and directly extract everything it find

Made the cleanup functions smarter, and fixed a small bug in the renaming feature

Now possible to save unfinished extraction queue to file on exit and reload it on startup (or a crash)

Logfile support added

Also possible to rename the directory you’ve extracted from

Possible to pause/resume on Unpacker & Autocopy

AutoCopy can now operate in quiet mode

Possible to set thread priority

Autoscan directories by given interval

Check autoscanned archives against the SFV file

Automatic adding to queue when archive is equal to SFV, so you don’t have to :)

Recursive scan of harddrive anywhere in Explorer for archives

Archives can be queued for process

Each archive is extracted one by one

Possible (optional) to clean up the archive files after use

Selected folders are scanned for archives which are then automatically displayed with selection boxes to select some or all for extraction.

unpackerext

A major limitation of Unpacker is that it only supports rar and zip archives. These two formats make up the majority of compressed files on the Internet but it may mean the occasional manual extraction of unsupported archives.

Unpacker comes with a folder watcher that can be used to monitor folders for new archives. New compressed files are then automatically unpacked by Unpacker.

Scene Unpacker

Scene Unpacker is limited to the rar format. It has been specifically designed for so called scene releases which are normally distributed as rar archives.

scene unpacker

A folder can be selected in the file browser. The program will automatically scan that folder and subfolders for rar archives. Any rar archive found is then listed in the interface so that they can be extracted easily.

The application seems to have troubles recognizing rar files correctly since it added several jpg images that ended with numbers as archives as well. This alone makes it rather impracticable to use unless it can be ensured that images are not located in the rar archive folders.

Scene Unpacker requires the Microsoft .net Framework. It can be integrated into the Send To menu for extra context menu integration.

The Scene Release Unpacker (SCRU)

SCRU, just like Scene Unpacker, have been specifically designed for P2P downloaders. It is basically a background program that can watch multiple directories for new archives and process them automatically whenever they are discovered.

filters

The app is complex as it provides lots of features that require configuration. It supports all the basic options one would expect like shell integration or logging. Advanced features include configuring different profiles and filters for specific usage scenarios.

The Scene Release Unpacker supports both rar and zip archives. It requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0 and can be downloaded from the developer website.

Although 7-Zip is available for both Windows and Linux, only the Windows port has a GUI front end. This means, by default, using 7-Zip in Linux requires the use of commands. Normally this is fine, but the 7-Zip commands can be fairly confusing (even to the experienced user). Fortunately 7-Zip does integrate well with the GNOME and KDE desktops. And it has a front end available. This front end is Q7z and was not created nor is maintained by the makers of 7-Zip.

In this article I will show you how to install and use the Q7Z front end for 7-zip on Linux.

Installation

Although you will find various packages on the Q7Z download page, you should avoid the pre-packaged binaries. Instead you will want to download the Autopackage File, which should work on just about any Linux distribution. Once you have downloaded that file you will need to open up a terminal and follow these steps;

1. Change to the directory holding the Autopackage File.
2. Give the file executable permissions with the command chmod u+x q7z-XXX-package Where XXX is the release number.
3. Issue the command sudo ./q7z-XXX-package Where XXX is the release number.

The installer will begin and walk you through the process. The only interaction necessary is for you to enter your sudo password twice. The Autopackage installer will automatically download all of the dependencies for you and run the full install process. When the installer closes you can then run Q7Z with the command Q7Z.pyw.

Usage

Figure 1

When you fire up the Q7Z tool, the main window should be fairly obvious to figure out. But just in case, let’s take a look at the process of compressing a folder.

Step 1: Click on the Locations tab.

Step 2: Click on the “Dir” button.

Step 3: Navigate to the folder you want to compress and click Open.

Step 4: If you want the compressed archive to be saved in a different location click the check box for “Destination” and then supply an alternate destination for your archive.

Step 5: Go back to the Specifications tab and specify the type of compression you want and any other options you might want to use. From this tab you can also create a self extracting archive (.exe file) as well as password protect your compressed files.

Step 6: Click the Create button.

Depending upon the size of the archive, the process could take some time.

Extracting

You can also extract archives with this same tool. The process is very similar to the creation of archive, only you work in reverse and you are using the Extract tab. The extraction process can extract the same file types that are supported with the compression (zip, 7z, bunzip2, tar, gzip, XZ).

Final thoughts

If you aren’t happy with your compression tool, you might want to give Q7Z and 7-zip a go. It offers solid compression, password protection, varied compression levels. and much more – all in an easy to use GUI interface. And if you’re not terribly happy with G7Z, 7-zip does integrate with Nautilus, so you can use that instead.

In this article I am going to de-mystify Linux file compression and archiving for you. By the end of the article you’ll be compressing and decompressing files in your sleep. And, as a bonus, you’ll know how to do this both via command line and GUI.

Compression versus archiving

The difference between compression and archiving is simple: Compression makes a file (or directory) smaller and Archiving takes many seperate files (such as a directory containing sub-directories and/or files) and turns it into a single file. You can have a compressed archive (such as .tar.gz or .tgz) and you can even have an archive of compressed files (such as a directory that contains a bunch of compressed files). But how do you know what are compressed files verses archived files? Here’s a list of file extensions and what they are.

.tar – This is an uncompressed Tar archive file. This type of archive is unpacked with the command tar xvf file.tar.

.tgz – This is a compressed Tar archive file. This type of archive is decompressed and unpacked with the command tar xvzf file.tgz.

.gz – This is a file compressed with the gzip program. This type of file is decompressed with the command gunzip file.gz.

.zip – This is a compressed file. This type of file is decompressed with the command unzip file.zip

.bz2 – This is a compressed file. This type of file is decompressed with the command bunzip2 file.bz2.

Which compression to use?

Of the three compression utilities (bzip2, zip, and gzip) the tool that will result in the most compression (the smallest file) is bzip2. The only disadvantage to bzip2 is that the algorithm uses more processor to complete than does the other utilities.

If you are sharing your compressed files with Windows users your best bet is to use zip for compression. Although there are tools (such as Stuffit Deluxe for Windows) that can handle bz2 files, the default supported is .zip.

Using the GUI

If you are a fan of the GUI (and who isn’t these days?) you will be glad to know that most all Linux file managers can handle compressed and archived files. In both Nautilus (GNOME) and Dolphin (KDE) you can simply right click a compressed, archived, or compressed archive file and select Extract. Both file managers also offer compression and archiving options when you right click a file or directory.

Final thoughts

Working with compression and archiving is very simple with the Linux operating system. You have plenty of options in both the command line and the GUI worlds.

Of course you can do the same thing, quickly, from the command line. But, for many, the choice between a user-friendly GUI tool and the command line is a no-brainer.

With File Roller you can both create archives and unpack archives. File Roller deals with the following types:

• .tar
• .tar.gz
• .tar.bz2
• .tar.lzma
• .jar
• .ar
• .cbz
• .zip

File Roller also does automatic archive typing, so when you are opening an archive you do not have to declare the type.

Running File Roller

File Roller Main Window

From the GNOME main menu you will find File Roller in the Accessories sub-menu of the Applications menu. When File Roller opens you will be presented with a fairly blank window.

From the main window you can either open an archive for unpacking or create a new archive. When you create a new archive what you are doing is first creating a folder that will contain all of the files, and then File Rollers packs everything up for you automatically.

Let’s create an archive for example’s sake.

Creating An Archive

The first thing to do is click the New Button. When you do this a File dialog will open where you will name your archive. This window can be deceiving because it looks like it wants you to select a file. That is not the case. What you want to do is enter the name of your new Archive in the Name text field. Once you have done that select the type of archive you want to create. After you have taken care of those two options, click the Create button.

At first glance you might think nothing happened. Look again at the title bar of the File Roller window and you will notice the file name of your new archive (see the image to the right).

TEST.tar.gz

Now it’s time to add files and/or folders to your archive. To add a file(s) click the Add Files button. To add multiple files at once click and hold the Ctrl key as you select files. Once you are satisfied with the files you have added click the Add button. What you will see now is the main File Roller window with your files included.

Your Archive Is Ready

You don’t have to save your archive. Once the files are added, the archive is ready. You can check your home directory and you will find it waiting for you.

Don’t think, however, the only thing you can now do is unpack your archive. With this archive open you can add more files or directories. simply go through the process again to add more.

Extracting an Archive

Extracting an archive is very simple. Open a new session of File Roller, click the Open button, select the archive you want to extract, and click the Open button. Once the archive is open you will see the entire contents of the archive. That doesn’t mean the archive is unpacked. In order to unpack the archive you have to hit the Extract button. Once you do that you will have to select a location to extract the contents to. This is a nice feature because, without this step, you could easily fill your ~/ directory with the contents of the archive.

Final Thoughts

I have always been a fan of the command line, because I was weened on Linux with the command line. But for those who do not have the time or inclination to learn the command line, tools like File Roller are ideal for accomplishing every day tasks like unpacking archives.

With ArchView it is possible to take a look at the contents of an archive without downloading the archive completely. Supported are the archive formates rar and zip which should cover most of the archives out there. One interesting feature of ArchView is that it can download files from within an archive which means that you can download the 10K file that you need from that 100 Megabyte archive without downloading the 100 Megabyte.

Archview adds itself to the stats bar and becomes active when the user clicks on a zip or rar link. It displays the contents almost instantly and presents the files of the archive in an XUL or HTML interface.

The author plans to improve the Firefox add-on by supporting additional formats (iso and 7z) in the future.

Auto Zip Attachments does exactly what the name applies. It adds an AutoZip button to Thunderbird which adds all attachments to an compressed archive, removes the files from the list of attachments and adds the compressed file instead to it. The AutoZip icon will be visible in every compose mail window in Thunderbird. You may override the default behavior of the extension and customize it to suit your needs.

Instead of compressing all attachments into one file you may choose to compress them in separate files or group files of the same type in the same zipped files. It is possible to activate the option to zip files automatically when sending and to prevent that certain file types get zipped at all.