Test set: Java application

[m^2]

The test set is Dimes, a java application.
Almost 3/4 of size is zipped already, so overall compression ratio is poor.

Files       Size        Files no.
Total       10569844    103
.jar        7335360     13
Exacutables 1465270     15
text        1197959     23
.ico        410290      7
.zip        68233       1
.jpg        42639       5
.gif        33267       29
.class      11203       5
others      5623        5

The best results:

Archiver                Size    Time
quick -1                8375483 0.093
quick -0                8341053 0.125
quick -2                8296855 0.140
quick -3                8216127 0.234
NanoZip -cf             8006016 0.328
thor e3                 7920016 0.453
slug                    7899756 0.468
NanoZip -cd             6991119 0.671
FreeArc -m2             6941817 0.984
NanoZip -cD             6895695 1.422
FreeArc -m3             6888428 1.890
FreeArc -m3 -ms         6880879 2.687
FreeArc -m4 -ms         6854155 2.813
FreeArc -m7x -ms        6850379 3.328
FreeArc -m9x -ms        6850379 3.328
FreeArc -m4             6838437 3.390
FreeArc -m5 -ma- -ms    6834065 4.594
FreeArc -max -ms        6814810 6.141
FreeArc -max            6805760 7.719
CCM 2                   6787225 11.500
CCM 3                   6781485 11.875
CCM 4                   6777505 12.250
CCM 5                   6774772 12.688
CCMX 5                  6771811 13.781
FreeArc -max -ma- -ms   5164156 26.782

As expected, precomp helps a lot...if you let it do the job, it seems to be used by FreeArc only with -ma- switch.

[schnaader]

The test set is Dimes, a java application.
Almost 3/4 of size is zipped already, so overall compression ratio is poor.

Total       10569844    103
.jar        7335360     13
[...]
FreeArc -max -ma- -ms   5164156 26.782

As expected, precomp helps a lot...if you let it do the job, it seems to be used by FreeArc only with -ma- switch.

I downloaded the latest installer (0.5.0) and couldn't manage to get the exact same file count, but for example JAR count and size is exactly the same, so I guess it can be compared. My version has 357 files and 10853727 bytes.

Archiving everything using UHARC and compressing with CCM 2 gives 6928907 bytes.
Using one Precomp run and CCM 2 gives a result near to your FreeArc result: 5140795 bytes.

But for JAR archives, two runs should be used. The first extracts JAR content, the second extracts zLib streams in PNGs/GIFs and recompresses JPGs that were inside the JAR. And indeed, using two Precomp runs gives amazing 2542845 bytes!

The third run detects some further PNGs and GIFs and comes down to 2536746, but that's not really worth it.

[m^2]

Damn, I run just 1 iteration with my latest testing, I'll have to redo this.
News:
Tornado p1..4
m1_paq
kzip
paq9a
SBC (more of it)
PAQ8p

Precomp+PAQ8P 4309076 bytes.

After some investigation, I noticed that DIMES keeps some logs in the Program Files.
I tested on a copy, so all archivers got exactly the same input. I can publish the test set and I'll probably retest everything with a clean install one day.

ADDED:
I just tried 3 passes of precomp + paq8p1.
1704947. Incredible. The best result w/out precomp so far is 6629922 (paq8p -4, I didn't try higher modes yet).
I'll post updated spreadsheet later, I want to add at least nanozip 0.5 results.
3 * Precomp + CCM2:
2368761. Smaller than yours.

[m^2]

Updated.
News: Nanozip 0.05
Qpress 0.22
3-pass Precomp + PAQ

Archiver                    Size    Time
quick -1                    8375483 0.093
quick -0                    8341053 0.125
quick -2                    8296855 0.140
quick -3                    8216127 0.234
NanoZip -cf                 8007565 0.328
thor e3                     7920016 0.453
slug                        7899756 0.468
NanoZip -cd                 6990581 0.656
FreeArc -m2                 6941817 0.984
NanoZip -cD                 6894397 1.390
FreeArc -m3                 6888428 1.890
FreeArc -m3 -ms             6880879 2.687
FreeArc -m4 -ms             6854155 2.813
FreeArc -m9x -ms            6850379 3.328
FreeArc -m7x -ms            6850379 3.328
FreeArc -m4                 6838437 3.390
FreeArc -m5 -ma- -ms        6834065 4.594
FreeArc -max -ms            66814810 6.141
FreeArc -max                6805760 7.719
CCM 2                       6787225 11.500
CCM 3                       6781485 11.875
CCM 4                       6777505 12.250
CCM 5                       6774772 12.688
CCMX 5                      6771811 13.781
FreeArc -max -ma- -ms       5164156 26.782
PRECOMP+PAQ8p1 -7           4309076 2950.328
PRECOMP(3 passes)+PAQ8p1 -7 1704947 4000.500

EDIT: Why do I always forget to attach the results?

[schnaader]

3 * Precomp + CCM2:
2368761. Smaller than yours.

I guess our test sets still differ a bit, furthermore I archived files with UHArc which compresses filenames and this reduces compression ratio a bit.

By the way, 1.7 MB is really impressive - I still get surprised about how well JAR archives can be recompressed.