Copyright © 2000 Matt Johnston
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".
Ark is an archive manager for KDE.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Ark is a program for managing various archive formats within the KDE environment. Archives can be viewed, extracted, created and modified from within Ark. The program can handle various formats such as tar, gzip, bzip2, zip and lha (if appropriate command-line programs are installed). Ark works closely with Konqueror in the KDE environment to handle archives.
Using ark
To open an archive in Ark, choose Open from the File menu. You can also open archive files by dragging and dropping from Konqueror. Archive files should be associated with Ark, so you can also right click a file in Konqueror and select Ark to open it.
Working with Files
Once an archive has been opened, you can perform various operations on the files inside the archive. By right clicking on a file within the archive, or selecting a file and using the Action menu, you can choose what you want to do:
View will open the file in the default viewer program.
Open With... allows you to open the file in a program you choose.
Edit With... will open the file a program you choose. The difference between this and Open With... is that any changes you make will be saved to the file in the archive.
Delete will remove the currently selected file(s) from the archive.
Extracting Archives
Once an archive has been opened in Ark, it can be extracted. To extract files from an archive, you can either select Extract... from the Action or by right clicking on any file. The Extract dialog allows you to select where you will extract files to. You can also select which files to extract:
Current extracts the most recently selected file. If multiple files are selected, only the most recently selected one will be extracted.
All extracts the entire contents of the archive.
Selected Files extracts all the files which have been selected.
Pattern allows you to specify which files will be extracted, corresponding to certain patterns, e.g. *.txt or *.jpg. Note that you can only use one pattern at a time.
You can specify the directory to extract files to in the Extract to: textbox. If you want to change the default directory, in the main program window, choose Directories on the Settings menu. Under the Advanced tab, you can choose some specific options depending on the archive format.
Creating Archives and Adding Files
To create a new archive in Ark, choose New from the File menu.
You can then type the name of the archive, with the appropriate extension (tar.gz, zip, bz2 etc.). To add files to the archive, choose Add File... from the Action menu. If you want to add an entire directory to an archive, choose Add Directory... from the Action menu.
An alternative way to add files to the archive is to drag a file from Konqueror or the desktop into the main Ark window, and it will be added to the current archive.
Configuring Ark
- Directories
This shows the Directories dialog box, so you can choose the default directories. The Last start-up directory is the last directory you used for that particular option.
Command Reference
- File->New (Ctrl+N)
Creates a new archive
- File->Open (Ctrl+O)
Opens an archive
- File->Open Recent
Shows a list of recent archives to choose from
- File->Save As
Allows you to save the current archive under a new file name
- File->New Window
Opens a new Ark window
- File->Reload
Loads the current archive again from disk. This will refresh Ark's view if another program has made changes to the archive.
- File->Close Archive
Closes the current archive
- File->Quit (Ctrl+Q)
Closes Ark
The Edit Menu
- Edit->Select...
Lets you select files according to their filename. For example, you could use *.txt to select all txt files. Note that you can't use more than one filter at a time.
- Edit->Select All (Ctrl+A)
Selects all the files in the archive
- Edit->Deselect All
Unselects all the files in the archive
- Edit->Invert Selection
Reverses which files are selected. Selected files become unselected, and unselected files are selected.
- Edit->View Shell Output
Displays the Shell Output box, which shows you the output of the most recent command(s) run by Ark. This is sometimes useful if you are having problems and want to troubleshoot.
The Action Menu
- Action->Add File...
Shows the Select Files to Add dialog box, where you can select files. Hold down Ctrl and click to select multiple files. To go up a directory, right click the directory box, and you can choose Up (this will probably be improved soon). The Advanced tab has options which are specific to the type or archive you are working with.
- Action->Add Directory...
Shows the Add Directory... dialog box, where you can choose a directory to add. Just choose a directory and choose Open.
- Action->Delete
Removes the currently selected files from the archive.
- Action->Extract
Shows the Extract dialog box, which allows you to select where you will extract files to. You can also select which files to extract:
Current extracts the most recently selected file. If multiple files are selected, only the most recently selected one will be extracted.
All extracts the entire contents of the archive.
Selected Files extracts all the files which have been selected.
Pattern allows you to specify which files will be extracted, corresponding to certain patterns, e.g. *.txt or *.jpg Note that you can only use one pattern at a time.
You can specify the directory to extract files to in the Extract to: textbox. If you want to change the default directory, in the main program window, choose Directories on the Settings menu. Under the Advanced tab, you can choose some specific options depending on the archive format.
- Action->View
Opens the currently selected file in the associated viewer program.
- Action->Open With...
Opens the currently selected file in a program you choose. The Open With... dialog box lets you choose which program to use.
- Action->Edit With...
Opens the currently selected file in a program you choose. Any changes you make in the editor program will be reflected in the archive, as it will be updated.
The Settings Menu
- Settings->Show Toolbar
Toggles whether the toolbar is displayed.
- Settings->Show Statusbar
Toggles whether the statusbar is displayed.
- Settings->Save Settings
Saves the current configuration options to disk. This means that they will be remembered next time you use Ark.
- Settings->Configure Shortcuts...
Displays the Configure Shortcuts dialog box. This lets you choose shortcut keys for various menu items. To change a shortcut, select an action from the list, and then choose which keystroke to use. Clicking on the bottom right hand Key button lets you choose which specific key to use. Just press the new key.
- Settings->Configure Toolbars...
Displays a KDE standard dialog where you can configure the toolbar icons.
- Settings->Configure Ark...
This opens the Ark configuration dialog. The dialog contains three tabs. Configuring Ark is covered in the section Configuration
The Help Menu
- Help->Contents... (F1)
Invokes the KDE Help system starting at the Ark help pages. (this document).
- Help->What's This? (Shift+F1)
Changes the mouse cursor to a combination arrow and question mark. Clicking on items within Ark will open a help window (if one exists for the particular item) explaining the item's function.
- Help->Report Bug...
Opens the Bug report dialog where you can report a bug or request a ‘wishlist’ feature.
- Help->About Ark
This will display version and author information.
- Help->About KDE
This displays the KDE version and other basic information.
Credits and License
Ark is Copyright 1997-2000, Various Ark Developers
Authors:
Robert Palmbos <palm9744@kettering.edu>
Francois-Xavier Duranceau <duranceau@kde.org>
Corel Corporation (author: Emily Ezust) <emilye@corel.com>
Documentation copyright 2000 Matt Johnston <mattj@flashmail.com>
This documentation is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
This program is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Installation
Ark is part of the KDE project http://www.kde.org/.
Ark can be found in the kdeutils package on ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/, the main FTP site of the KDE project.
Requirements
In order to successfully use Ark, you need KDE 2.0. GNU Tar v1.12 and a recent gzip are also needed to use Ark. To handle other file formats, you need the appropriate command line programs, such as zip, unzip, ar and lha.
Compilation and Installation
In order to compile and install Ark on your system, type the following in the base directory of the Ark distribution:
% ./configure % make % make install
Since Ark uses autoconf and automake you should have no trouble compiling it. Should you run into problems please report them to the KDE mailing lists.