Problem Following Instructions in Archive Manager

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White Phoenix
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Problem Following Instructions in Archive Manager

Post by White Phoenix »

I am using Caja file manager (the default for Mate) and Archive Manager (a.k.a. emgrampa/7zip) on Linux Mint 17.

I want to create some archives of folders. Any other archiving system I’ve used on Windows had an option on the pop up menu to Create an Archive in place of the option to Extract Here|To. So I open Archive Manager to get the instructions. I was doing fine (I even ignored redundant instruction #5) until I came to this part under To Add Files to an Archive.
You can also add files to an archive in a file manager window, without opening an Archive Manager window. See Using the File Manager to Work with an Archive for more information.
So I go to the suggested section only to find:

To Add Files to an Archive by Using the File Manager

So, I continue thinking maybe there is still something where I can simply click on the file(s) and create an archive.

In the following instructions you will find the words “Create Archive”.
You can use the file manager to add files to an archive, in the following ways:
• Drag the files into a Archive Manager window from a file manager window.
• Use the file manager popup menu to add the files to the archive.

To use the file manager popup menu to add files to an archive, perform the following steps:
1. Right-click on the files or folders in a file manager window.
2. Choose Create Archive from the file manager popup menu to display the Archive Manager Create Archive dialog.
3. Enter the archive name, without the file extension, in the Archive text box.
4. Choose the archive type from the drop-down list.
5. Choose the location where to save the archive file, from the Location drop-down list. If the location is not present in the list choose Other... to select it with the Location dialog.
6. Select the required create options clicking on Other Options. For more information about the create options, see Create Options.
7. Click Create to add the selected files to the root folder of the specified archive.

*To select any of the advanced add options, you must invoke Archive Manager as described in To Start Archive Manager.
1. This is not creating an archive, it is adding files to an archive that is already or in the process of being created.

2. Create Archive never appeared as an option on the popup menu or anywhere else. At this point, I wound up having to figure out what to do on my own to at least get to step 3. But wait, I already have a created archive. So step 3 is also redundant as well as steps 4 through 6. If you followed only the instructions under “Use the file manager popup menu to add the files”, you cannot perform step 7.

Basically, the instructions to “Use the file manager popup menu to add the files” are the instructions on how to use the file manager to create a new archive. Which doesn’t happen because Create Archive never appears on the pop up menu.

Is this a bug, or an oversight? Could it be fixed in an update? Would a re-write of the instructions to Archive Manager be in order?

Software installed:
caja, caja-common, caja-extensions-common, caja-gksu, caja-open-terminal, libcaja-extension1, p7zip, p7zip-full, unzip, unrar, zip, cpio, ubuntu-keyring, ubuntu-extras-keyring, engrampa, engrampa-common, lhasa, libarchive-extract-perl, libarchive-zip-perl, libarchive, libtar0, libzip2
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Linux Mint 18.3 / Cinnamon
Toshiba Satellite L655d-S5151 (Intel dual processor, 64bit, 4GB RAM)
Dell Optiplex 3010 (Intel dual processor, 64bit, 4GB RAM, dual boot with Windows 7 Pro w/XP Mode
Zalbor

Re: Problem Following Instructions in Archive Manager

Post by Zalbor »

If I select one or more files in Caja and right click, "Compress..." appears as an option. From then on, it looks pretty much like your instructions describe.
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White Phoenix
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Re: Problem Following Instructions in Archive Manager

Post by White Phoenix »

Which is misleading since Compress is not necessarily the same as Archive. Most of the time they are considered two different functions. Considering that Linux is real picky about how the terminology is used, I didn’t bother trying it because I wanted to archive the files, not just shrink them.

It isn’t really fair to make the distinction, then when the user learns the difference, just go ahead and use the terminology ambiguously. Someone needs to make up their mind and if they aren’t going to be consistent, they need to make that clear in the instructions (by stating “Compress” instead of “Create Archive”, in this case).
Linux Mint 18.3 / Cinnamon
Toshiba Satellite L655d-S5151 (Intel dual processor, 64bit, 4GB RAM)
Dell Optiplex 3010 (Intel dual processor, 64bit, 4GB RAM, dual boot with Windows 7 Pro w/XP Mode
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