Bug: Multipart .rar files are seriously mishandled

[Loren Pechtel]

I don't know how multi-part rar's are built so I can't say what it's screwing up. However it's screwing up badly--it doesn't see all the files. No error messages, just missing data.

I just took one that TC had extracted as a few small files and then one big one. I tried it with winrar--and it correctly sees the rest of the big ones after that.

Note that all the small ones would easily fit in the first part of the rar, the big ones each comprise many parts.

[Clo]

2Loren Pechtel
Hello !
• Nice speach, but please, could you tell us what is "big" and what is "small" ?
* Also the version of TC you are running, the version of WinRar, and the OS used. Some infos about your PC too ?

To be continued…

  Kind regards,
Claude
Clo

[Loren Pechtel]

2Loren Pechtel
Hello !
• Nice speach, but please, could you tell us what is "big" and what is "small" ?

All bigs were 100mb+. No small was even 1mb. A consistent hypothesis (I don't know the file structure so this might not fit) is that it's only seeing those files that at least start in the first segment. All bigs span many segments each.

* Also the version of TC you are running, the version of WinRar, and the OS used. Some infos about your PC too ?

TC 6.03a
Winrar 3.3
OS XP Pro
System: P4 3.0 hyperthreading, 3gb ram, HD's total over 500gb.

[Randy]

I've run into this issue as well and, at least for me, it only happens when the first file in the series isn't labelled .rar but is labelled something like .001 or .r01 or something similar.

[Clo]

2Randy
Hi !
*.001 - *.002 etc. are normal extensions for partial files (when a huge file has been splitted into n… fractions).
* Maybe am I beside the issue, but did you try to combine in first all fractions (if alright numbered as above), then unpack the "original" whole huge file - which might be a *.rar - ?

>>> Loren Pechtel

System: P4 3.0 hyperthreading, 3gb ram, HD's total over 500gb.

 Wha ! Did you win the jackpot of the Lot(t)o ?

KR
Claude
Clo

[Loren Pechtel]

2Randy
Hi !
*.001 - *.002 etc. are normal extensions for partial files (when a huge file has been splitted into n… fractions).
* Maybe am I beside the issue, but did you try to combine in first all fractions (if alright numbered as above), then unpack the "original" whole huge file - which might be a *.rar - ?

It shouldn't be neccessary to combine them.

Winrar handles the files fine as they sit on my HD. TC handles the split fine for the purposes of extraction but it doesn't see all the files to extract.

The files in question all have a .rar extension and they have the part #'s in the filename. I have also seen one .rar and then a bunch of numeric extensions, that should also work as is. TC extracts fine from such files but every one I've encountered contained only a single file and thus wouldn't fall victim to this bug.

>>> Loren Pechtel

System: P4 3.0 hyperthreading, 3gb ram, HD's total over 500gb.

Wha ! Did you win the jackpot of the Lot(t)o ?

I'm a programmer. It's a development machine. The biggest speedup I've ever found to do to a machine is to put enough memory in it that whatever data I'm actually working with stays in memory. Thus I have a strong preference for maximized memory on my development box.
There is something to be said for having a task run in 4 seconds that runs in 4 minutes on lesser machines.

[Black Dog]

[face=courier]On 29-05-2004 04:47:59 +0000 Clo wrote:

R>> it only happens when the first file in the series isn't
R>> labelled .rar but is labelled something like .001 or
R>> .r01 or something similar
C> *.001 - *.002 etc. are normal extensions for partial files
C> (when a huge file has been splitted into n… fractions).

Dear Clo, multivolume RAR archive's first volume "normal extensions" is ".rar" not ".001". Sure.[/face]

[Clo]

2Black Dog
Hi !

...it only happens when the first file in the series isn't
labelled .rar but is labelled something like .001 or .r01 or something similar...

* It's that Randy told, not me.
B R
Clo

[Clo]

2Loren Pechtel*
 Hello !

The files in question all have a .rar extension and they have the part #'s in the filename.

• I guess that TC doesn't recognize these file-names including the part order-number as fractions, but as normal RAR archives.
* If you have a big file splitted into n... RAR volumes, then you ask to TC for unpack only one volume, certainly that doesn't the trick. I suppose that RAR knows that a certain big file you want to unpack continues in the next volume(s), then unpack the whole file, while TC doesn't ...
• At least temporarily, Ch. Ghisler might add a warning message when a part "#n..." in a filename with the RAR extension exists, and that the file comes to be unpacked.
Note : in the same case, a correct behaviour exists already for ARJ multi-volume archives...
That might be enhanced to RAR ones.

The "Jackpot" was a joke, of course! However :

having a task run in 4 seconds that runs in 4 minutes

4 mn / 4 s = 60
3,000 MHz / 60 = 50 MHz... Not many people are using such machines actually

  KR
Claude
Clo

[Black Dog]

[face=courier]On 30-05-2004 01:52:09 +0000 Clo wrote:

C> It's that Randy told, not me.

Of course Randy, you told exactly the opposite:

C>> *.001 - *.002 etc. are normal extensions for partial files
C>> (when a huge file has been splitted into n… fractions).

I just made the thing you didn't - quote a part of Randy's post you answered to.[/face]

[Black Dog]

[face=courier]On 29-05-2004 08:02:13 +0000 Loren Pechtel wrote:

LP> It shouldn't be neccessary to combine them.

It looks like Clo is really "beside the issue" in this case.

LP> Winrar handles the files fine as they sit on my HD. TC
LP> handles the split fine for the purposes of extraction
LP> but it doesn't see all the files to extract.

Well this is because of the way Commander works with multi-volume RAR archives, that's an old story, actually:

_________transmission_from_HISTORY.TXT__________

16.04.02 Added: Internal unpacking of single files from multi-volume RAR archives (requires new unrar.dll)
16.04.02 Fixed: Multi-volume RAR files: Only show files which start in that volume!
16.04.02 Fixed: Support for new multi-volume RAR files (requires external winrar for unpacking)
[^Y]
10.07.98 Fixed: Problems with unrar and multi-volume archives (now using external unpacker)

______________end_of_transmission________________

i.e. now you

1. Can't unpack the whole multi-volume archive w/o external RAR;
2. Can view (and ergo unpack) single files which only started in current volume;
3. Can't see the whole multi-volume archive structure via Commander.

LP> The files in question all have a .rar extension and they
LP> have the part #'s in the filename. I have also seen one
LP> .rar and then a bunch of numeric extensions, that should
LP> also work as is.

Yep, new and old volume naming scheme - Commander treats them the same way.

LP> TC extracts fine from such files but every one I've
LP> encountered contained only a single file and thus wouldn't
LP> fall victim to this bug.

Well, actually this is not a bug - this is how Christian see the way Commander should work with multi-volume RAR archives. Yep, sad.[/face]

[Loren Pechtel]

2Loren Pechtel*
Hello !

The files in question all have a .rar extension and they have the part #'s in the filename.

• I guess that TC doesn't recognize these file-names including the part order-number as fractions, but as normal RAR archives.
* If you have a big file splitted into n... RAR volumes, then you ask to TC for unpack only one volume, certainly that doesn't the trick. I suppose that RAR knows that a certain big file you want to unpack continues in the next volume(s), then unpack the whole file, while TC doesn't ...
• At least temporarily, Ch. Ghisler might add a warning message when a part "#n..." in a filename with the RAR extension exists, and that the file comes to be unpacked.
Note : in the same case, a correct behaviour exists already for ARJ multi-volume archives...
That might be enhanced to RAR ones.

However, TC *DOES* know to look in the other parts to find the continuation of what it's currently extracting. It just doesn't know to look in them to find more files to extract. That says "bug" to me.

The "Jackpot" was a joke, of course! However :

having a task run in 4 seconds that runs in 4 minutes

4 mn / 4 s = 60
3,000 MHz / 60 = 50 MHz... Not many people are using such machines actually

That's the result of having enough memory to do it entirely in memory. The machines that take in the ballpark of 4 minutes are P3 and P4's. If you can get your working data into memory that's worth a *LOT* more than CPU speed. (And note that that 4 seconds is still reading the data from "disk"--if it were loaded into an array it would go even faster.)

[Loren Pechtel]

[face=courier]On 29-05-2004 08:02:13 +0000 Loren Pechtel wrote:


_________transmission_from_HISTORY.TXT__________

16.04.02 Added: Internal unpacking of single files from multi-volume RAR archives (requires new unrar.dll)
16.04.02 Fixed: Multi-volume RAR files: Only show files which start in that volume!
16.04.02 Fixed: Support for new multi-volume RAR files (requires external winrar for unpacking)
[^Y]
10.07.98 Fixed: Problems with unrar and multi-volume archives (now using external unpacker)

______________end_of_transmission________________


Well, actually this is not a bug - this is how Christian see the way Commander should work with multi-volume RAR archives. Yep, sad.[/face]

Labelling a bug "feature" doesn't make it one.

At least it needs a warning message. It certainly should be fixed, though.

[Black Dog]

[face=courier]On 30-05-2004 20:12:20 +0000 Loren Pechtel wrote:

LP> Labelling a bug "feature" doesn't make it one.

The "bug" is something that works not the way it is designed to. In this case everything works the way Christian wanted to - he has his reasons for that. You (as well as me) want it to work another way, but actually this is your (as well as my) problem %). So you can call it "a lack of functionality" but this is not a bug. Sure. And if you don't like how Commander treats multi-volume RAR archives you can use RAR/WinRar instead :).

LP> At least it needs a warning message.

What exactly you want to be warned about?

LP> It certainly should be fixed, though.

You see, this is Christian's personal business what should be fixed. If you really think you are the first one who faced this problem, you are, hmm, wrong. The situation with multi-volume RAR archives support was discussed very vividly two years ago on the previous incarnation of this forum and as you can see, nothing changed. But of course you can send a letter of wish request to Christian %).[/face]

[Loren Pechtel]

[face=courier]On 30-05-2004 20:12:20 +0000 Loren Pechtel wrote:

LP> Labelling a bug "feature" doesn't make it one.

The "bug" is something that works not the way it is designed to. In this case everything works the way Christian wanted to - he has his reasons for that. You (as well as me) want it to work another way, but actually this is your (as well as my) problem %). So you can call it "a lack of functionality" but this is not a bug. Sure. And if you don't like how Commander treats multi-volume RAR archives you can use RAR/WinRar instead .

I don't see how silently doing something other than what the user would expect can be considered anything other than a bug.