Archive managers

[HisDudeness]

Hi everyone! I have both some doubts and requests about archive managers. I'm using Cinnamon as DE (don't know if it has anything to do about it), and I found annoying I have two different archive managers by default (name of processes: engrampa and file-roller) which look pretty much the same except for the icon. Can I keep just one and remove the other? When I double click on an archive right now, file-roller is automatically opened. Which one is better for you and why?

As for my question, I may actually have to remove them both and use another. I'm looking for an archive manager who can perform multiple actions automatically processing several archives at once, just as Winrar made for *ugh* Windows. I mean, if i select multiple archives in Nautilus I want to get some options in the right-click cascade menu such as "extract all archives" (which is an "extract here" for all) and "extract each archive in a separate folder" (meaning a multiple "extract in %name% sub-folder"). Is there a linux software which can do that? Or are those things doable by using one of the default managers through a terminal command?

[xenopeek]

As you are using LMDE, the ISO will have installed both Cinnamon and MATE. Cinnamon is running on top of Gnome 3 (as a replacement for Gnome Shell), while MATE is a fork of Gnome 2. To facilitate MATE being able to live on the same system as Gnome 3, as well as probably some Gnome trademark removals, all packages and applications forked from Gnome 2 to MATE have a new name.

In short, yes engrampa is the fork of Gnome 2's file-roller. And you have that installed alongside Gnome 3's file-roller that comes with Cinnamon.

On the next update of the LMDE ISOs, MATE and Cinnamon will be on separate ISOs so this won't be there. The benefit of having both MATE and Cinnamon is that if the one breaks, you may be able to just log in to the other (from the log in screen you can pick which desktop environment to run for this session) and repair whatever is wrong.

As to the "extract all archives" question, I don't think this is a limitation of the archive manager but of the file manager not offering you this choice. You may try a different file manager instead.

[HisDudeness]

Oh, thanks, I see. So, if I removed engrampa (as file-roller is the default one for Cinnamon) I wouldn't have a working archive manager when using Mate (or does file-roller work on Mate too despite being a Gnome 3 program?).

I actually have to correct one statement of mine as there actually is the extract here option, which works for both single and multiple files (using file-roller in Cinnamon). It was at the end of the menu, while the "Open with archive manager" option was on top, so with an inaccurate look I believe there wasn't. What I'm still missing is some option such as "extract in %name% sub-folder". Can it be done by making a custom script? By the way, I'm using nautilus as file manager.

[xenopeek]

You can use whatever archive manager you want, it is just that Caja (MATE's file manager) integrates engrampa and Nautilus integrates file-roller. Both might also detect certain other archive managers, and integrate these if engrampa or file-roller aren't available (like xarchiver). Not sure if MATE will use file-roller if engrampa isn't available, possibly. You can remove engrampa and try; you can always just install it again. (or have a peek at the source code: https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-file-manager)

As to your other question; don't know.

[rich2005]

...and "extract each archive in a separate folder" (meaning a multiple "extract in %name% sub-folder"). Is there a linux software which can do that? Or are those things doable by using one of the default managers through a terminal command?

Peazip
AFAIK not through a nautilus context menu, it has its own browser (a bit like winrar). Unpacks multiple archives to their own folders.

http://peazip.sourceforge.net/peazip-linux.html

[HisDudeness]

Thanks to both, I understood. I just find having an automatic double DE is just great, shame they will change that. I'll try peazip and remove both default managers, maybe, depends on how I find it. Or just leave file-roller alone, I don't mind not having an archive/file manager integration for MATE, I don't plan on using it much. Anyway, would it be any better replacing nautilus with nemo?