FreeArc usability questions

[TheEmptyMind]

Hello,
Does freearc's directory exclusion work? Unless I am missing something, I couldn't get it to work.

See below:

C:\local>mkdir test

C:\local>cd test


C:\local\test>mkdir a


C:\local\test>cd a


C:\local\test\a>touch foo.txt


C:\local\test\a>cd ..


C:\local\test>cd ..


C:\local>Arc.exe a -m1 -xa\* local C:\local\test
FreeArc 0.666 creating archive: local.arc
Compressed 3 files, 0 => 4 bytes. Ratio 0.0%
Compression time: real 0.01 secs. Speed 0 kB/s
All OK


C:\local>del local.arc


C:\local>Arc.exe a -m1 -xlocal\test\* local C:\local\test
FreeArc 0.666 creating archive: local.arc
Compressed 3 files, 0 => 4 bytes. Ratio 0.0%
Compression time: real 0.01 secs. Speed 0 kB/s
All OK

C:\local>Arc.exe l local.arc
FreeArc 0.666 listing archive: local.arc
Listing archive: local.arc
Date/time                  Size Filename
----------------------------------------
2013-07-10 16:17:01       -dir- local\test
2013-07-10 16:17:13       -dir- local\test\a
2013-07-10 16:17:13           0 local\test\a\foo.txt
----------------------------------------
3 files, 0 bytes, 4 compressed
All OK



C:\local>

Any ideas would be appreciated!

[Bulat Ziganshin]

try -xa and -xa\

[TheEmptyMind]

No dice!

C:\local>Arc.exe a -m1 -xa local C:\local\test
FreeArc 0.666 creating archive: local.arc
Compressed 3 files, 0 => 4 bytes. Ratio 0.0%
Compression time: real 0.01 secs. Speed 0 kB/s
All OK


C:\local>del local.arc


C:\local>Arc.exe a -m1 -xa\ local C:\local\test
FreeArc 0.666 creating archive: local.arc
Compressed 3 files, 0 => 4 bytes. Ratio 0.0%
Compression time: real 0.01 secs. Speed 0 kB/s
All OK


C:\local>del local.arc


C:\local>Arc.exe a -m1 -xa -xa\ local C:\local\test
FreeArc 0.666 creating archive: local.arc
Compressed 3 files, 0 => 4 bytes. Ratio 0.0%
Compression time: real 0.01 secs. Speed 0 kB/s
All OK


C:\local>

[Bulat Ziganshin]

-xC:\local\test\a

[TheEmptyMind]

No luck!

C:\local>Arc.exe a -m1 -xC:\local\test\a local C:\local\test
FreeArc 0.666 updating archive: local.arc
Compressed 3 files, 0 => 4 bytes. Ratio 0.0%
Compression time: real 0.01 secs. Speed 0 kB/s
All OK


C:\local>

[Bulat Ziganshin]

-xC:\local\test\a\

[TheEmptyMind]

Nope -- bug?

C:\local>Arc.exe a -m1 -xC:\local\test\a\ local C:\local\test
FreeArc 0.666 updating archive: local.arc
Compressed 3 files, 0 => 4 bytes. Ratio 0.0%
Compression time: real 0.01 secs. Speed 0 kB/s
All OK


C:\local>

[Bulat Ziganshin]

arc create a -xsrc\* -dpC:\Testing\fsbench-0.13.3_Kaze -r
arc create a -xC:\Testing\fsbench-0.13.3_Kaze\src\* C:\Testing\fsbench-0.13.3_Kaze

[TheEmptyMind]

Thanks, that worked. I am pretty sure I tried that before but without "create", so the directory exclusion is not reflecting in the existing archive. If I tried the command without create but with --sync, it seemed to do the right thing.

C:\local>del local.arc


C:\local>Arc.exe a -m1 local C:\local\test
FreeArc 0.666 creating archive: local.arc
Compressed 3 files, 0 => 4 bytes. Ratio 0.0%
Compression time: cpu 0.06 secs, real 0.01 secs. Speed 0 kB/s
All OK


C:\local>Arc.exe a -m1 -xC:\local\test\a\* local C:\local\test
FreeArc 0.666 updating archive: local.arc
Compressed 3 files, 0 => 4 bytes. Ratio 0.0%
Compression time: real 0.01 secs. Speed 0 kB/s
All OK


C:\local>Arc.exe a -m1 --sync -xC:\local\test\a\* local C:\local\test
FreeArc 0.666 updating archive: local.arc
Compressed 2 files, 0 => 0 bytes. Ratio 0.0%
Compression time: real 0.01 secs. Speed 0 kB/s
All OK


C:\local>

[TheEmptyMind]

I noticed something else. Updating an archive with --sync is relatively slower than creating a new archive from the scratch. I did repeat my test for a good 100+ times and the results are pretty consistent. Even creating a new file inside the archive directory will cause it to slow down. It is fairly easy to reproduce too -- see the steps below.

Any ideas to quickly update an archive without recompressing the unmodified files?

C:\local>timethis test-arc.bat


TimeThis : Command Line : test-arc.bat
TimeThis : Start Time : Wed Jul 10 18:52:46 2013




C:\local>C:\local\Arc.exe a -m1 --sync C:\Users\wintest4\AppData\Local\Temp\testS C:\local\test
FreeArc 0.666 creating archive: C:\Users\wintest4\AppData\Local\Temp\testS.arc
Compressed 657 files, 297,032,632 => 97,274,365 bytes. Ratio 32.7%
Compression time: cpu 6.54 secs, real 4.17 secs. Speed 71,307 kB/s
All OK


TimeThis : Command Line : test-arc.bat
TimeThis : Start Time : Wed Jul 10 18:52:46 2013
TimeThis : End Time : Wed Jul 10 18:52:50 2013
TimeThis : Elapsed Time : 00:00:04.400


C:\local>touch C:\local\test\foo.txt


C:\local>timethis test-arc.bat


TimeThis : Command Line : test-arc.bat
TimeThis : Start Time : Wed Jul 10 18:53:03 2013




C:\local>C:\local\Arc.exe a -m1 --sync C:\Users\wintest4\AppData\Local\Temp\testS C:\local\test
FreeArc 0.666 updating archive: C:\Users\wintest4\AppData\Local\Temp\testS.arc
Compressed 658 files, 297,032,632 => 97,274,365 bytes. Ratio 32.7%
Compression time: cpu 9.03 secs, real 5.63 secs. Speed 52,739 kB/s
All OK


TimeThis : Command Line : test-arc.bat
TimeThis : Start Time : Wed Jul 10 18:53:03 2013
TimeThis : End Time : Wed Jul 10 18:53:09 2013
TimeThis : Elapsed Time : 00:00:05.866


C:\local>

[TheEmptyMind]

It seems that Arc is failing to read junction points when the ACE for the junction point has EveryOne set to DENY, but the target for the junction point can still be queried (see below).

C:\>set temp
TEMP=C:\Users\USERNAME\LOCALS~1\Temp


C:\>arc.exe create -m1 %TEMP%\test C:\local\test
FreeArc 0.666 creating archive: C:\Users\USERNAME\LOCALS~1\Temp\test.arc
Compressing 1,108 files, 345,721,236 bytes. Processed   0.0%arc.exe: C:\Users\USERNAME\LOCALS~1\Temp: mkdir: already exists (File exists)


C:\>junction "C:\users\USERNAME\Local Settings"


Junction v1.06 - Windows junction creator and reparse point viewer
Copyright (C) 2000-2010 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com


C:\users\USERNAME\Local Settings: JUNCTION
   Print Name     : C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local
   Substitute Name: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local


C:\>

Users who migrated from XP to Windows Vista/7 have %TEMP% set to C:\Users\USERNAME\LOCALS~1\Temp and the transition is supposed to be smooth for applications as the NTFS reparse points are supposed to redirect the application to the target location. It is not clear to me why Arc is failing to write to %TEMP% though. Thought I will report the issue.

[TheEmptyMind]

I noticed that -ap is case sensitive (I haven't tested others though) and Windows is case insensitive.

C:\local>arc create Test C:\local\Test
FreeArc 0.666 creating archive: Test.arc
Compressed 2 files, 0 => 30 bytes. Ratio 0.0%
Compression time: cpu 0.05 secs, real 0.06 secs. Speed 0 kB/s
All OK


C:\local>arc x Test -aplocal\test -dpC:\local\test.new
FreeArc 0.666 extracting archive: Test.arc
Extracted 0 files, 0 => 0 bytes. Ratio 0.0%
Extraction time: real 0.01 secs. Speed 0 kB/s
All OK


C:\local>arc x Test -aplocal\Test -dpC:\local\test.new
FreeArc 0.666 extracting archive: Test.arc
Extracted 1 file, 0 => 0 bytes. Ratio 0.0%
Extraction time: real 0.02 secs. Speed 0 kB/s
All OK


C:\local>

Can this be fixed please?

Thanks!

[avitar]

Don't think Bulat's working on freearc - 0.70 still not out- seems to be on srep 100%! And this, as already notified in freearc thread?
'
freearc error or feature? latest version beta 12 dec 2012

arc e arc_name*.* *.* exits with errorlevel=0 (not 1) if there are no files matching arc_name*.*
'
Works ok- ie returns 1 if there is no wild card in arc name.

John