• Lesson 1. Installing Linux in LiveCD mode
• Lesson 2. Installation options for Linux and Windows
• Lesson 3. The GNOME desktop environment
• Lesson 4. Customising GNOME
• Lesson 5. Installing and deleting packages
• Lesson 6. Configuring the network
• Lesson 7. Partitioning and mounting HDD partitions
• Lesson 8. File Manager
• Lesson 9. Archiving files
• Lesson 10. Launching Windows applications
• Test

Lesson 9. Archiving files

:: 1. Creating an archive :: 2. Extracting files from an archive :: 3. Viewing and modifying an archive :: Summary of the main points ::

You will learn how to:

• Create archives.
• Modify an existing archive and extract files from it.

The Ubuntu workspace has a graphical program for working with files in such formats as: tar, zip, ar, aer, jar, war. It can be used to inspect, extract from, create and modify archives.

1. Creating an archive

Lets assume we create an archive of music files, stored in Music in the appropriate directories:

• Open Music using the command Places → Music:

• Highlight all the folders and run Edit → Create Archive (or use the popup menu). A window will appear in which you can set the name of the archive with the selected format (the Archive tab) and its storage location on the drive (the Location tab):

• Run Create and make sure that the archive My Archive.zip has been created:

Note: after pressing Create file compression will take place in accordance with the selected compression algorithm and an archive file created (in our case, My Archive.zip).

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2. Extracting files from an archive

To extract files from an archive:

• In the archive folder (My Archive).

• • Highlight the archive and run Edit → Extra Here:

• In the current folder:
  In this case we will use the archive window command.
  • Open the archive dialog box My Archive with the command File → Open with "Archive Manager":

• • In the archive window run the command Archive → Extract, or click on the toolbar button with the corresponding icon;
  • In the Extract window Ubuntu offers to extract into the current folder

• • Agree by clicking on ;
  • Close the archive window and make sure that the files have been extracted.
• Into a folder specified by the user:
• • In the Extract window click the Create Folder tab and in the command line that appears, enter the name of the new folder:

• • Or, from the directory path, select the desired folder, using the navigation by sections button or the section Places, Enter:

• • Press ;
  • Close the archive window and make sure that the files have been extracted.

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3. Viewing and modifying an archive

The contents of an archive can be viewed and modified (by deleting and adding files as well as directories) using commands in the archive dialog box, so to start with it must be opened with the command File → Open with "Archive Manager".

• The contents of the archive folder can be conveniently viewed by section using Folders (View → Folders):

• Files and directories are added to the archive using the commands Edit → Add Files and Edit → Add Folder (appropriate thumbnail ):

• In the Add Files dialog box you can choose those files/directories which will be added to the archives and press Add.
• Files and directories can be deleted and renamed in the archive using the commands Edit → Delete and Edit → Rename.

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Summary of the main points

• The application adds a special option to the files' popup menu. Therefore, to archive them, simply highlight them and from the popup menu of one of the highlighted objects select the option Create Archive.
• The application has a flexible and conceptually simple interface consisting of several buttons.
• Excellent compression formats as well as support for popular archive formats such as tar, zip, ar, aer, jar, war.
• You can open an existing archive and perform various functions on it: add files to it, delete files from it, inspect the contents of files and extract files of interest.

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