archives

Archives

Pre-alpha. Browsing, testing, unpacking and packing archives are in the current build. Changing an archive in place and rar come later.

Formats

Format	Read	Pack	Notes
zip	yes	yes	Including zip64. Names without the UTF-8 flag are read as code page 437 (the DOS default) unless another code page is set.
7z	yes	yes	Solid or not. Solid archives are read as a stream: a large entry is never unpacked into memory, and unpacking many entries reads each block once, in the archive's order.
tar	yes	yes	Plain, or compressed with gzip (.tar.gz, .tgz), xz, bzip2 or zstd.
.gz, .xz, .bz2, .zst	yes	no	A single compressed file shows as an archive with one entry.
rar	not yet	no	Planned for later.

Archives in the panel

• Enter on a zip, 7z or tar file opens it in the panel like a folder, as in Total Commander. Enter goes by the file name, so .docx or .jar files still open in their program; Settings, page Folders, Enter opens archives turns this off. Ctrl+PgDn opens any file whose content is an archive, whatever its name.
• The path bar runs on through the archive (C:\data\backup.zip › docs), the size column shows the packed size, and .. at the archive's root returns to the folder, with the cursor on the archive file. A typed path through an archive file (C:\data\backup.zip\docs) opens it there.
• Archives are read-only in the panel. F5 copies entries out into the other panel through the background queue, folders with everything below them; a file that is there already is asked about in the usual conflict dialog, where Skip all keeps every existing file. Changing, moving or deleting inside an archive is refused with Archives are read-only here; unpack the archive to change its contents.
• F3 shows an entry in the viewer; F4 and Enter on a file inside hand your editor or your system a read-only copy of it (in a temporary folder, removed when rCommander ends).
• A tab inside an archive comes back after a restart. If the archive file is gone by then, the tab opens the folder that held it and the status line says so.
• Encrypted entries are marked [encrypted], names that would leave the archive [unsafe path].

Testing an archive

Alt+Shift+F9 tests the archive under the cursor (or the selected ones) in the background: every entry is read to its end and checked. The status line then shows how many entries are fine, damaged (with the first names) or encrypted and therefore not tested.

Unpacking

Alt+F9 (also Alt+F6) unpacks the selected archives in the Unpack files dialog:

• the target folder (the other panel's folder by default),
• Files to unpack, a mask such as *.txt,
• Unpack each archive into a folder of its own,
• Keep folder paths stored in the archive, or unpack every file into one folder,
• Existing files: Ask, Skip, Overwrite, Overwrite older, Rename the new file.

The job runs in the background queue like a copy, with progress, pause and cancel. Each file is written under a temporary .rcpart name and takes its real name only when it is complete, so a cancel or a damaged entry leaves no half file and never destroys a file it would have overwritten. The same holds when you copy out of an opened archive with F5.

Encrypted archives (zip with ZipCrypto or AES, 7z) ask for their password. The password is used for that archive and job only and is never stored; a wrong one asks again, and Cancel skips the encrypted files.

Packing

Alt+F5 packs the selection in the Pack files dialog; Alt+Shift+F5 opens it with Delete the packed files (move to archive) already ticked.

• Format: zip, 7z, tar, tar.gz, tar.xz, tar.bz2 or tar.zst.
• Level 0 (store) to 9 (smallest). For tar.zst, 0 stores and 1 to 9 all use zstd's fastest level.
• Options: Include subfolders, Keep folder paths, Each entry into an archive of its own, Solid archive (7z), Store links as links (tar, zip) - otherwise a link is packed as the file it points to.
• An existing archive is replaced only after you confirm it.
• The archive is written under a temporary name and gets its real name only when it is complete, so a cancel or an error never leaves a broken archive under the name you chose.
• Delete the packed files deletes the sources only after the archive is complete, and asks first.

Safety

• Names that would leave the target (.., absolute paths, drive letters such as C:\, UNC paths, names Windows cannot hold) are marked in the panel and never unpacked; the job lists them as skipped.
• Links stored in an archive are shown but never followed or created, and a link already in the target folder is never written through. Set-user-id bits are dropped.
• Archive bombs are stopped: an archive with more than a million entries, more than 1 TiB unpacked, or an entry that unpacks to more than 500 times its packed size (above 256 MiB) is refused with an error instead of filling memory or the disk.
• Decoder memory is limited too: an xz or 7z archive whose compression needs more working memory than Settings, page Folders, Archive decoder memory (MiB) allows (256 by default, 16 to 4096) is refused before it is unpacked - even a tiny file could otherwise ask for gigabytes.
• A damaged archive answers with an error.
• An AI assistant can list, test, unpack and pack archives over MCP; overwriting and deleting the packed files need your confirmation, an encrypted archive is refused (it has no way to give a password), and key or credential files are never packed. See MCP server.