Last updated May 10 2010

History of FreeArc

---------------------

Collected by Rudyuk Vladimir (aka ruduk)

Note: Some links at this page may not be available at this moment

 

FreeArc 0.01 (June 16 2004)

---------------------

Status:

 First initial version

 

Changes:

    * Option "-r"

    * Simple wildcards (?*)

 

 

FreeArc 0.02 (June 17 2004)

---------------------

Change:

    * Added modules FileInfo, MyLib

 

 

FreeArc 0.03 (June 18 2004)

---------------------

Changes:

    * Option "-x"

    * Grouping filespecs by directory

 

 

FreeArc 0.04 (June 19 2004)

---------------------

Change:

    * New module ArcOptions for options parsing

 

 

FreeArc 0.05 (June 19 2004)

---------------------

Change:

    * Option "-o"

 

 

FreeArc 0.06 (June 19 2004)

---------------------

Changes:

    * Filesorting uses functions application

    * FileInfo saves basename and extension

    * New module ArcFilelist which returns list of files to archive

    * fiSize=0!!!

    * Option "--emptydirs"

 

Note:

      (40.617 files:: ~50 megs, 12 Mreductions, 21 secs (w/o sorting filenames))

      (                                     44 Mreductions, 55 secs ("-oen"))

      (                                     61 Mreductions, 68 secs ("-oen" with strLower))

 

 

FreeArc 0.07 (June 20 2004)

---------------------

Changes:

    * Option "-g"

    * Sorting by group

 

 

FreeArc 0.08 (June 20 2004)

---------------------

Changes:

    * Compiling regexprs

    * FileInfo saves lowercased extension

 

Note:

      (40.617 files::  6 Mreductions, 11 secs (w/o getModificationTime))

      (                     7 Mreductions, 17 secs (w/o sorting filenames); rar33 - 3.9 secs)

      (                   43 Mreductions, 55 secs ("-oen" w/o strLower fiBasename))

      (                   55 Mreductions, 64 secs ("-oen"))

      (                 191 Mreductions,157 secs ("-ogen"); rar33 - 9.7 secs)

 

 

FreeArc 0.09 (June 23 2004)

---------------------

Change:

    * Archive creation

 

 

FreeArc 0.10 (June 25 2004)

---------------------

Change:

    * Archive extraction

 

 

FreeArc 0.11 (July 10 2004)

---------------------

Change:

    * GHC compatibility

 

Notes:

      (37.500 files:                 -   7.39 secs - w/o getModificationTime)

      (                160/40 mb   -  12.46 secs - without sorting)

      (                     226 mb   -  15.61 secs - "-ogen")

      (                                    -  20.00 secs - "-ogen" with getFileSize)

     Using stat!

      (                 75/45 mb    -   6.98 secs - w/o sorting; rar33 - 6.65 secs, 5 mb)

      (               111/52 mb    -   8.64 sec  - "-oen")

      (               142/62 mb    - 10.29 sec  - "-ogen"; rar33 - 7.74 secs)

     try PackedStrings:

      (               400/43 mb    -    9.33 sec  - w/o sorting)

      (               519/60 mb    -  11.14 sec  - "-oen")

      (               600/60 mb    -  12.78 sec  - "-ogen")

     GHCi:

      (                     148 mb   -  12.74 sec  - w/o sorting)

      (                     248 mb   -  18.43 sec  - "-oen")

      (                     673 mb   -  39.64 sec  - "-ogen")

     Hugs (now fiSize is real!!!):

      (  112mred     1150/37 mb       68.34 sec  - w/o sorting)

      (  152mred     2133/40 mb      103.69 sec  - "-oen")

      (  259mred     3377/42 mb      178.42 sec  - "-ogen")

 

 

FreeArc 0.12 (July 28 2004)

---------------------

Note:

 - Due to storage fiPathname instead of fiFullname, memory consumption lowered at 2-3 times (15/27/30 mb).

  Thus the program was even accelerated on 10-15% due to simplification of files assembling

 

Change:

    * Added "ArchiveFormat" description

 

 

FreeArc 0.13 (July 29 2004)

---------------------

Note:

 - First version that creates archives in Universal Archive Format

 

 

FreeArc 0.14 (August 11 2004)

---------------------

Changes:

    * Archive updating + commands "djlvex"

    * Supports wildcards in archive names for commands "adlvex"

    * Supports "-r" for recursive archives searching with commands "dlvex"

 

 

FreeArc 0.15 (August 17 2004)

---------------------

Changes:

    * Add/Extract empty dirs

    * Build PATHs

    * Support for multiple datablocks / directory blocks

 

 

FreeArc 0.16 (August 29 2004)

---------------------

Changes:

    * Fast I/O via memory buffers

    * Removing duplicates from list of files to archive

    * Proper joining of filelists for updating solid archives

    * Options --nodata/--nodir

    * Rereads FileInfo before compression

    * Saves/checks CRC

    * Restores file datetime stamp

    * Command "t"

 

Note:

 - Due to Fast I/O via memory buffers, Add/Extract with "-m0" now close to speed of RAR/7zip:

           Add  Extract

     Arc:  1.0  3.6 seconds (for 1000 files, 8mb total)

   RAR:  0.8  3.0

       7z:  0.5  2.3

 

 

FreeArc 0.17 (September 23 2004)

---------------------

Changes:

    * Display progress when working and print statistics when finished

    * Compress and extracts data using PPMD

 

 

FreeArc 0.18 (September 29 2004)

---------------------

Changes:

    * Proper output for commands "l" and "v"

    * Option -m (-m0..-m5, -m0=ppmd:o6:mem24m) - both RAR and 7-zip syntax

    * Option --dm (compression method for archive directory)

    * Separate thread for asynchronous files reading with 16 mb read-ahead

 

 

FreeArc 0.20 (January 15 2005)

---------------------

Note:

 - Version 0.20 was rewritten from a zero with the purpose of achievement of the following aims:

    - a reliable control of errors                                                      

    - partitioning of intricate problems on separate interactive threads

    - total commentation of source codes on Russian language

    - an economical consumption of memory

    - an increasing flexibility of program working for volume {tome?} creation, for data storing if compression was not succeeded, for multiprocessor support, and etc.

    - a changing of archive structure and directory of files

    - a creation of possibility for encryption adding, data recovering, storage of files generations, joining of compression algorithms, and etc.

 

Main change:

    * Hugs-compatible version without compression

 

 

FreeArc 0.21 (February 5 2005)

---------------------

Changes:

    * PPMD, LZMA, LZP

    * -m1..-m6x

    * -t

    * -kb

    * CRC

    * Restores datetime stamp

 

 

FreeArc 0.22 (February 19 2005)

---------------------

Note:

 - Last version for GHC 6.2.1

 

Changes:

    * GRZip

    * BCJ-x86

    * -js

    * Complex decoder for -m

    * Full RE in filenames

 

 

FreeArc 0.23 (April 26 2005)

---------------------

Changes:

    * GHC 6.4

    * FAR plug-in

    * -tl/-tk

    * arc.ini

    * %FREEARC

    * -cfg-

    * -o

    * -y

    * Russian names

    * Economical read-ahead

    * HEADER BLOCK

 

 

FreeArc 0.24 (December 16 2005)

---------------------

Changes:

    * Compression Library (for Haskell/C++)

    * Extractor unarc.exe

    * SFX

    * y/c/cw/k/s/-z/-k/-sfx

    * --Limit*Mem

    * Unicode support

    * >4gb files support

    * RAM consumption: 300 bytes/file

 

 

FreeArc 0.25 (October 1 2006)

---------------------

Changes:

    * Lzma 4.43

    * Smart update of solid blocks

 

 

FreeArc 0.30 (October 15 2006)

---------------------

Changes:

    * dict

    * ppmonstr

    * --display

    * --logfile

 

 

FreeArc 0.31 (October 18 2006)

---------------------

Changes:

    * New LZP

    * New parsing {parser?} -m: m1x..m7, -m4b/3t, dict+lzp+ppmd/pmm, lzp+lzma

    * [Compression methods]

    * --print-config

 

 

FreeArc 0.32 (December 6 2006)

---------------------

Status:

 First public version

 

Note:

 - First public version (advertised with dict)

 

 

FreeArc 0.33 (December 10 2006)

---------------------

Changes:

    * New sorting method -dsgecpn

    * The section of documentation "Config-file arc.ini"  is written

 

 

FreeArc 0.35 (January 9 2007)

---------------------

Change:

    * REP: replaced on lzp in compression of binary files

 

 

FreeArc 0.36 (February 22 2007)

---------------------

Status:

 Release:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-win32.zip

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-sources.tar.gz

 

Main changes:

    * Protection and reconstruction (recovering) archive (commands r/rr, Option -rr). Look for details in RAR documentation

    * Unlike RAR, if archive contains recovery info, its wholeness is checked before any operation with this archive

    * -pt/-t - test archive before/after operation

    * -w - a directory for temporary files

    * -ao/-ac: choose (select) files under archive attribute / clear archive attribute after archiving

    * Carrying files into archive (command m[f] and option -d[f])

    * The section of documentation "Config-file arc.ini"  is written, described option --print-config

    * -lc/-ld

    * Heap of the small improvements

 

Compression improvements:

    * Preprocessor REP allows to find repetitions on greater distance (for example, up to 512 mb when use 768 mb memory)

    * Sorting of files is close to ideal

    * Possibility to describe new compression modes in arc.ini and assign sequence of an algorithm for every filetype in separate method (for example: -m5$text=dict+ppmd:16:384m)

    * Possibility to use external programs as stage of the compression (now limited only ppmonstr.exe using)

    * -m5p..-m8p - a ready compression modes that use ppmonstr.exe

 

 

FreeArc 0.36 (March 19 2007)

---------------------

Status:                                                          

 Re-released version in 7z-file with arc.ini updated:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-win32.7z

 

Note:

 - In march I was updated 0.36 version changing only arc.ini file. The new settings should help to better compress MM files (using grzip instead of lzma), but now I can say that sometimes this helps, sometimes doesn't

 

 

FreeArc 0.40 beta (August 10 2007)

---------------------

Status:

 Test demo version:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArcBeta.7z

 

Notes:

 - I publish current state-of-the-art with FreeArc: FreeArcBeta.7z

 - Online Russian docs: http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc040.htm

 - Please don't use it for real compression tasks - program still contain bugs and compression formats will be changed in released version

 - Please don't advertise it outside of this forum

 

Main improvements:

    * Exhaustive Russian docs (I plan to make English translation this month)

    * Sources with easy-to-follow building guide

    * Multimedia compression using TrueAudio, GRZIP and my own MM detector/preprocessor

    * Enabling LZMA multithreading makes main compression algorithm 1.5x faster on dual-core CPUs

    * Using temporary files for memory-hungry compression modes allows raising maximum compression level up to –m8

    * Fast Tornado compression used in –m1 and –m2 modes, providing 10-100 mb/sec compression speed with zip-like compression levels

    * User-defined external compressors in arc.ini, so now you can use your favorite compressors (LPAQ, PPMonstr, CCM and any other) inside .arc archives

    * Encryption of data using aes and archive headers using aes256+twofish+serpent, keyfiles support (-p, -hp, -kf, -ae, -hae)

 

There is also number of minor changes:

    * Use -mx for maximum internal compression

    * Use -max for maximum compression involving external compressors (PPMonstr, ECM, Precomp and PackJPG as defined in included arc.ini)

    * Implemented –m6p..-m9q methods

    * File filtering based on modification time, size, name (-ta, -tb, -tn, -to, -sl, -sm, -n)

    * New 'lb' command lists bare filenames of files in archive

    * 'y' command renamed to 'ch' for compatibility with RAR

    * No more need to add "--recompress" when recompressing archives using "ch" command: "Arc ch archive –mx"

    * --display option was greatly enhanced; use -di to display all information

    * -z also works on extracting, saving archive comment to file

    * Improved help displayed by "Arc", added help to user queries

    * Temporary files are deleted when exiting by Ctrl-Break

    * Renamed groups in arc.groups: $audio -> $wav, $rgb -> $bmp; added $precomp, $jpg, $iso groups

 

 

FreeArc 0.40 beta Linux (October 1 2007)

---------------------

Status:

 First release of FreeArc port to Linux:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.40-beta-linux-i386.tar.bz2

 

Notes:

 - On September 27 2007 I’ve successfully ported my current beta of FA to Linux

 - It's still very basic and doesn't support any os-specific features, in particular:

     - GetThreadTimes, SetConsoleTitle, GetPhysicalMemory, GetProcessorsCount, ExpandProgname;

     - filelist/screen/filenames..., encoding, >4gb files support;

     - symlinks, file owner/group/permissions, ^Break and other OS signals, SFX;

     - packaging/installation/man files

 

 - Don't use it for real work!

 - I've also cleaned up English translation of 0.36 docs: http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-eng.htm

 

FreeArc 0.40 pre-release 1 (October 24 2007)

---------------------

Status:

 Pre-release 1:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.40-prerelease1-win32.7z

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.40-prerelease1-linux-i386.tar.bz2

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.40-prerelease1-sources.7z

 

Notes:

 - It's a public test version of FreeArc 0.40. Please use it only for tests

 - I expect to make release in a 3 weeks, which will include full English docs and fix many minor problems still remaining. Please test this version using included pretest.cmd script to help me spot any remaining bugs

 - Please use included supertest.cmd script too

 

Main changes:

    * MM compression

    * Usual compression improvements (tornado, delta, lzma -mt)

    * Over-quick {fast?} compression in -m1/m2 modes

    * Support for any external compressors, defined {adjusted?} in arc.ini

    * 1.5x faster {1.5-multiple increase?} functioning speed on dual-core CPUs

    * Encryption

    * Completely working plug-ins for FAR/TC

 

 

FreeArc 0.40 pre-release 2 (November 1 2007)

---------------------

Status:

 Pre-release 2:

  http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=207033

 

Note:

 - This version implements RAR-compatible -ep option and fixes several bugs with handling absolute pathnames

 

Changes:

    * Implementation {Implemented?} (RAR-compatible) -ep option

    * Fixed several bugs with handling absolute pathnames

 

 

FreeArc 0.40 pre-release 3 (November 17 2007)

---------------------

Status:

 Pre-release 3

  http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=207033

 

Notes:

 - This update fixes all known severe bugs, and should be last before the final release

 - Now Tornado should be reliable enough for practical usage

 

Changes:

    * Fixed several Tornado algorithm bugs

    * FAR plugin was extended to support archives and files larger than 4 GB

    * Total Commander plugin was updated to open archives faster

    * Definition of external compressors having multiple versions was simplified

    * At last, Unix version was added Ctrl-Break handling

 

 

FreeArc 0.40 pre-release 3 (November 17 2007)

---------------------

Status:

 Update for Pre-release 3: arc.arc

 

Change:

    * Has compiled FreeArc with /LARGEADDRESSAWARE parameter

 

Note:

 - Test who is able. Here is example for commandline:

  Arc.exe a a -lc- -ld- -mppmd:2200m -di -di+$

 

 

FreeArc 0.40 pre-release 3 (December 9 2007)

---------------------

Status:

 Update for Pre-release 3: arc.arc

 

Changes:

    * Output of intermediate data sizes added into debugging information output (for test needs)

    * Has make more-less operative updating of compression progress indicator

 

Note:

 - In compression progress indicator still there is off-standard works (in particular, wrong data processed size is displayed)

 

 

FreeArc 0.40 pre-release 3 (December 12 2007)

---------------------

Status:

 Update for Pre-release 3: arc.arc

 

Change:

    * Ability to recover bad sectors in archive (without RR) using http-recovery from good archive

 

Note:

 - If even there is no RR-data in archive, we can simply test archive to expose failure solid-blocks and instead of dull report on error just re-download them anew!

       For example:

     So, we download http://www.haskell.org/bz/bad.arc, and trying to unpack {trying extraction?}:

       arc t bad

     We receive report on error

     We trying to restore – unhappily, but then can save the list of failure regions in archive:

       arc r bad --save-bad-ranges=bad.ranges

     And, finally, use Arc itself to download bad sectors from fault-free copy and restore archive:

       arc r bad --download=http://www.haskell.org/bz/good.arc

     And check for result:

       arc t fixed.bad.arc

 

 

FreeArc 0.40 pre-release 4 (December 16 2007)

---------------------

Status:

 Pre-release 4:

  Release notes: http://freearc.sourceforge.net/readme-pre4.txt

  Download: https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?grou p_id=207033

 

Note:

 - I still stuck with English docs, so it's one more prerelease version

 

Main changes:

    * FreeArc is allowed to use more than 2gb of memory

    * Fixed problem with use of -dm9 option

    * "All OK" message printed only if --display option includes 'k' letter

    * Progress indicator now is much more accurate. It will never more freeze exactly at 99.9% :)

    * Listing/extracting archives directly from Internet (see below)

    * Archive recovery by re-downloading broken parts from Internet (see below)

    * Improved recovery feature (see below)

    * Russian docs were updated with description of all the new features

 

 

FreeArc 0.40 pre-release 4 (December 25 2007)

---------------------

Status:

 Update for Pre-release 4: arc.arc

 

Note:

 - First try to make GUI

 

Change:

    * Added Arc-gui.exe

 

 

FreeArc 0.40 pre-release 4 (December 26 2007)

---------------------

Status:

 Update for Pre-release 4:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/arc-2g.7z

 

Note:

 - Anyone who sees problems with using pre-4 in -mx mode: please try this update. If it will work correctly, I will know how to fix the problem

 

Change:

    * Fixed problem with 2GB+ memory handling

 

 

FreeArc 0.40 pre-release 4 Linux (December 26 2007)

---------------------

Status:

 New test GUI Linux version released

 

Notes:

 - Wanna test Linux-version? http://www.haskell.org/bz/arc-linux-gui.bz2

 - Afaik, it needs gtk2 installed to work

 

 

FreeArc 0.40 pre-release 4 (December 28 2007)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated http://www.haskell.org/bz/Arc10-12-2007.arc

 

Note:

 - I added the second version there – in which exactly largemem is disabled  and third – in which wininet is disabled

 

 

FreeArc 0.40 pre-release 4 (December 29 2007)

---------------------

Status:

 Update for Pre-release 4:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/arc-pre4-fixed.arc

 

Notes:

 - Version with hopefully fixed problem. To be exact, problem (stricter limits on the amount of virtual memory allocated) will be raised only when internet files are accessed and wininet.dll library are actually used

 

 - It seems that wininet just allocates ~1gb of process address space for itself on the first call to any its function. So I just postponed wininet initialization to its first actual use...

 

Also:

 Update for pre-release 4:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/arc-pre4-fixed.7z

 

Notes:

 - It's impossible to use this new version anyway without downloading all other files from SF

 - It's commandline archiver, so if you don't want to use cmdline - you are out of lack anyway

 

 - Actually, I prefer to publish program in arc format because it allows extracting only files that was actually updated since the last release. Of course, such releases are done only for permanent freearc testers - casual users will just download releases from SF where I will use zip/msi format

 

 - Anyway, I will make release today!

 

 

FreeArc 0.40 pre-release 4 (December 31 2007)

---------------------

Status:

 Update for pre-release 4:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FileMan.7z

 

Notes:

 - It is written for a hour (on a dispute)

 - As for GUI - I am going to make it myself in January. To use offhand 7-zip-GUI will not turn out:

     - At first, he is written on Ñ;

     - Secondly, he is not commented.

  To steal him will be longer, than to do such. GUI - in general only dull coding. Well and design too

 

Also:

 - I want in a few days to produce {to release?} finally 0.40, taking pre-4 for basis and remedying all known errors

 - Therefore request to all, who has TC – test this variant: http://www.haskell.org/bz/freearc.addon

 

 

FreeArc 0.40 (January 1 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Release.

  Download & other info: http://freearc.sourceforge.net/

 

Note:

 - Now I use gtk2hs which works with both Linux and Windows

 

Main changes:

    * MM

    * Tornado

    * Delta

    * Lzma

    * FreeArc is allowed to use more than 2gb of memory

    * -mt

    * Ext. compressors

    * tempfile

    * Encryption

    * Unix version

    * http+recovery (recovery using internet)

    * -sc/far/tc

    * ^Break

    * warn/error/fail->logfile + stderr + exitCode

    * -cfg/-env

    * -n/-ta/../-sl/-sm

 

Main fixes:

    * Fixed errors in freearc.addon (settings for Total Commander plug-in). You should reimport new settings

    * It was impossible to extract archives created with external compression (in -m5p..-max modes).  Improved compression in -m5p..-max modes by adding "exe" filter to $iso/$precomp methods in arc.ini

 

 

FreeArc 0.40-fix (January 4 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Update for Release version:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/arc-fixed.7z

 

Note:

 - Bugfixed version

 

Change:

    * Hope fixed error with an uncaught bad_alloc, since 7-Zip is not able to allocate 1536MB for PPMdH

 

 

FreeArc 0.40a (January 8 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Update for FreeArc 0.40:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/arc.arc + http://www.haskell.org/bz/arc2.arc

 

Note:

 - arc.arc + arc2.arc = First full-scale GUI version of FreeArc. Sorry for inconvenience - I’m on dialup now, so don't want to reupload whole set of dlls

 

Changes:

    * Added GUI version of FA - WinArc.exe

    * Disabled linking switch (--large-address-aware)

 

 

FreeArc 0.40a Linux (January 8 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Linux version updated: http://www.haskell.org/bz/arc-linux-gui.bz2

 

 

FreeArc 0.40b (January 8 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 New test version:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/arc040b.7z

 

Note:

 - Please try version without wininet.dll

 

Change:

    * Added ability to use more than 2GB of RAM due to wininet.dll

 

 

FreeArc 0.40-no-http (January 8 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 New test version:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/arc040-no-http.7z

 

Note:

 - I've compiled optimized version of FA without wininet library. Hope it will solve all problems on 3+ gb memory configs

 

Change:

    * Optimized version of FA without wininet library

 

Also:

 - I’ve also update http://www.haskell.org/bz/arc-linux-gui.bz2

 

 

FreeArc 0.40-no-http (January 10 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc.arc

 

Note:

 - I've deleted 7z archive because now its contents is included in arc.arc

 

 

FreeArc 0.50-no-http (January 10 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Test version:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/arc050-no-http.7z

 

Note:

 - By the way, I’ve put larger {large?} dictionaries in configure file for -m9, but probably it will not work due to limitation of memory block size. In general, for testing it would be nice to find someone with 4GB+Vista

 

Also:

 Updated test version: arc.arc

 

Note:

 - arc.arc is again a full package of FreeArc 0.50 test version. It includes no-http versions which lacks ftp/http access, but should have no problems

  on boxes with 3-4gb of memory

 

Change:

    * Fixed crashing after performing several operations

 

 

FreeArc 0.50-no-http Linux (January 11 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated bugfixed Linux version:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/arc-linux-gui.arc

 

Note:

 - Btw, all those dlls in WinArc distribution are from gtk library. To get more Windows-native look for WinArc you should install gtk2hs from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=49207&package_id=42440 and *remove* dlls packaged with WinArc

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 test (January 13 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 New test version:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/arc-255m.7z

 

Change:

    * I’ve remade lzma. Now he allocates memory in three chunks (8x, 1x and 1.5x), thus {moreover?} begins from the largest one

 

Notes:

 - That is why this version is named {identified?} as 255m. Try her on Vista

 - Use -di+$ for an analysis

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (January 28 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Released WinArc 0.50 alpha version:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.50-win32-alpha-2008-01-28.7z

 

Notes:

 - It requires Gtk2 installed in order to run, you can extract gtk2 dlls from arc.arc

 - Linux version http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.50-linux-i386-alpha-2008-01-28.7z

 

Main changes:

    * GUI version, localized to 70 languages ;)

    * Automatic detection of filetype by file contents - still unfinished

    * Fixed all the memory-allocation problems (thanks to Egor!)

    * By default, -ld=1gb (limit decompression memory to 1gb) is used

    * With "-lc- -ld-" options and 64-bit Windows, algorithm limits now are: lzma:255m, lzma:fast:511m, ppmd:2047m, rep:2047m, lzp:1675m

    * Archive listing commands now include "Compressed" sizes and mark encrypted files with "*"

    * By default, solid blocks now have unlimited size (in 0.40, 1gb was the default)

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha Linux (January 29 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated Linux version:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.50-linux-i386-alpha-2008-01-28.7z

 

Change:

    * Version contains corrected source codes

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (February 8 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Released alpha version:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.50-win32-alpha-2008-02-08.exe

 

Main changes:

    * Improved automatic filetype detection and ability to disable it using -ma- option and in GUI

    * Ability to create Compression/Encryption profiles

    * Significantly improved Add dialog, it now supports almost all features of cmdline version

    * Localization for names of standard settings/profiles

    * Tooltips can be assigned to any GUI control using the same number+1000. Please tell me if some controls don't appreciate tooltips

 

Notes:

 - This is WinArc 0.50 alpha dated Feb 8 2008. It requires GTK+ runtime which can be downloaded from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=71914
  Direct download link: http://ovh.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/gtk-win/gtk2-runtime-2.12.5-2008-01-20-ash.exe

 - For further information about the project, swim to http://freearc.sf.net page

 

 - I don't fixed many of the problems you have reported. it's not because I don't plan to do it, but because this release is more about adding new features rather than bug-fixing. I think that now we are almost ready to release beta version where hopefully most bugs mentioned will be fixed

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha Linux (February 11 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated sources & Linux version:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.50-sources-alpha-2008-02-08.7z

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.50-linux-i386-alpha-2008-02-08.tar.bz2

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (May 13 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * Interested persons can test it with a gigabyte dictionary:

       -mlzma:ht4:1gb:mc64

 

Also:

 New version http://freearc.narod.ru/arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * -m3 instead of rep:32m+lzma:hc4:4m now uses lzma:ht4:32m, that improved compression on 1-10%

 

Also:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * -di+% for memory statistics output on the screen (accordingly, -di+$# is no longer working)

 

Also:

 New version: http://freearc.narod.ru/arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * I’ve reduced memory consumption for dictionary at 1GB to 1.5GB RAM

 

Note:

 - Please, anyone (who have enough memory) test it on 1.5GB file and write here - does it works or not

     - fast mode: -mlzma:1gb:fast:ht4:mc4

     - slow mode: -mlzma:1gb:ht4:mc64

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (May 14 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * lzma by default = lzma:64m:ht4

    * -m4 instead of rep:64m+lzma:8m:bt4 now uses lzma:64m:ht4:mc16 (similarly change as in -m3)  

    * For lzma was added parameter :h, allowing to change the size of hash (for ht4, by default dict/2) or hash header (for hc4/bt4, by default dict*2). By changing this parameter, it is possible to accelerate a search or vice versa, to little decrease requirements for memory

 

Also:

 New version http://freearc.narod.ru/arc1.arc

 

Changes:  

    * lzma:1gb:ht4 must finally working (please, check it up!)

    * In -m3/-m4 modes FA creates {produces?} archives, compatible with 0.40

 

Note:

 - Please, check up work with 1gb and if it doesn’t working – from what dictionary size it begins to work?

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (May 15 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Released alpha version:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.50-win32-alpha-2008-05-15.exe

 

Main changes (from February 8 2008):

    * Improved automatic filetype detection

    * Improved -m3/m4 compression methods

    * Initial support for scripting FreeArc using Lua (see scripts directory)

    * -di+% for displaying memory status

    * lzma: changed default settings; :h parameter allows to change size of hash; new HT4 matchfinder allows to use dictionary up to 1gb

    * GUI: BackSpace jumps to the parent directory

 

Note:

 - Also updated Plans of the further development {Future plans?}

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (May 20 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Released SFX: sfx.arc

 

Changes:

    * arc.sfx - includes all 11 algorithms

    * arc-small.sfx - without mm/tta/tornado. For archives created with options like  -m5 -mm-

    * arc-smallest.sfx - also without rep/lzp/ppmd. For archives created with options like  -m5x -mm-

 

Notes:

 - SFX for now only console. Directories with Russian names at crosscutting are not created

 - For those, who never used RAR, remind: 

       -sfx[sfxname] – to add SFX-module to archive

       s - to transform {convert?} an ordinary archive into SFX

 

 - The sizes of SFX-modules will be reduced. Now many of algorithms are not able to be compiled without compression code

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (May 21 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated sfx.arc

 

Changes:

    * Work {Functioning?}of PPMD is fixed

    * Added request for rewriting files and option -y

 

Also:

 New http://www.haskell.org/bz/winarcsfx.exe

 

Note:

 - Demo for how SFX will look. See, criticize. Now Mark, author of site, exactly works on it

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (May 22 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated GUI SFX:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/winarc.sfx

 

Note:

 - To warm up interest for the discussion – I publish the first raw variant 

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (May 26 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated sfx.arc

 

Change:

    * Now it includes GUI SFX modules

 

Note:

 - Criticize, while it did not get in release

 

Also: (May 24 2008)

 Updated http://www.haskell.org/bz/memo.7z – memo.exe (complete version)

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (May 27 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated sfx.arc

 

Change:

    * For this moment, all known errors are fixed, except of unicode-simbols support in the names of archive /destination directory for extraction /displayed comments

 

Notes:

 - When extraction running, SFX-archive falls somewhere on 50% with an error. Found out what is the matter – at the end of solid-block processing the memory was not freed

 - By the way, creation of SFX with such options is not best idea. Besides other, SFX is not able to write down intermediate information in temp-file

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (May 28 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated sfx.arc

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Fixed bug in GUI SFX: it unpacked lzma with fixed dictionary at 64 MB

    * SFX support for GUI and commandline

    * GUI: message combobox at the window bottom

    * An icon is added to .arc files

    * The storage format for archive comment is changed (UTF-8 instead of UCS-4), with support for old comments reading

    * Work with SFX is realized through a command line:

       - SFX creation with arc.sfx headline {interface?}:  arc a archive -sfx

       - SFX creation with given headline {interface?}:  arc a archive -sfxWinArc.sfx

       - SFX changing:  arc ch archive.exe -sfxWinArc.sfx

       - SFX removing:  arc ch archive.exe -sfx-

       - commands "s..." is equivalent to the commands "ch -sfx...", for example:  arc s- archive.exe

 

Notes:

 - Actually, everything as for {in?} RAR plus some more. SFX-module is taken from directory, where Arc.exe/WinArc.exe is located, if only its path does not specify his name,

 for example: arc a archive -sfx.\my.sfx

 - By the way, what do you think about such feature in GUI SFX – after information is successfully decompressed, to open destination directory in Explorer?

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (May 29 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated sfx.arc

 

Change:

    * GUI SFX: added support for rtf-description of archive

 

Note:

- Give a command:

       arc ch archive.exe -z=my.rtf

   and comment will displayed in extraction dialog of SFX

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (June 3 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Released alpha version:

  http://freearc.org/Download.aspx

 

Main changes (from May 15 2008):

    * Creation of self-extracting archives with Windows GUI, Windows console and Linux console interfaces

    * Support of RTF files used as comments in GUI self-extractors

    * WinArc: message combobox at the window bottom

    * WinArc: registers icon for .arc files

    * New format of archive comments with ability to read old comments

    * Linux: multithreading for LZMA (1.5x faster compression)

    * Fixed bug in -m1 mode implementation; old archives created in this mode need to be recompressed to -m2 before upgrading to new program version

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (June 7 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * Fixed bug in compression

 

Note:

 - Shortly speaking, incompressible information was written in the way, that requires 2x memory to extraction. Possibly, it is reason and problems in MOC

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (June 8 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * Fixed bugs in rep/max compression

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (June 9 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * GUI: during compression of directory "FreeArc 0.50" the offered name of archive is "FreeArc 0.50.arc"

    * GUI: display real name of archive tested by -t

    * GUI: messages: found N files, sorting filelist, analyzed N files...

    * GUI: in infobox name of archive is displayed without directory

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (June 11 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Fixed two compression problems in -mx mode

    * New slightly improved/fixed GUI

 

Notes:

 - There are 5 new strings to localize, it will be great if localization authors will fix it before new version arrives

 - Please try to compress your data with this version. 3 users reported that it was fixed their -mx mode problems, I want to ensure that it also works for you

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (June 13 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Automatic filetype detection improved a bit

    * GUI: width for Add dialog is limited; disabled automatic increase of main window

    * GUI: preserving of sizes and main window position

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (June 16 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Fixed problems with Russian names in archives/directories/files

    * Option -sfx/command s  by default adds SFX-module winarc.sfx

    * Help is displayed on error in the parameters of GUI SFX

    * "All OK\n" is displayed at successful operation for unarc/console SFX

    * Arc.exe instantly completed at pressure on ^Break/error appeared

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (June 18 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * Now user-defined tempfile strings {are} used only for compression

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (June 19 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Fixed error in Delta algorithm

    * Now for extraction -ld75% is used by default

    * Selection of unicode files/directories through Select-dialog

    * Unicode filenames output on the progress indicator window title

    * freearc.addon (for Total Commander) – added support for spaces in filenames

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (June 22 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Released alpha version

  http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?release_id=608694

 

Main changes:

    * GUI: WinArc executable renamed to FreeArc; a lot of usability improvements

    * Windows: added "Extract here" to .arc files context menu; added "FreeArc archive" to Explorer New command; added "Change skin" shortcut; config files are searched first in user-specific "Application Data\FreeArc" directory

    * Linux: fixed archive navigation & Unicode filenames support

    * SFX: support for non-English filenames; WinRAR-compatible options with help displayed by "/?"

    * -sfx option by default adds GUI module freearc.sfx (instead of arc.sfx)

    * Total Commander addon: support for filenames with spaces and SFX archives

    * FAR Plugin: added "Convert to SFX" command

    * Improved filetype detection for large heterogeneous files

    * Fixed bug in REP that was preventing decompression of some archives created in -mx mode

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (June 23 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Released alpha version

  http://freearc.org/Download.aspx

 

Change:

    * Fixed bugs in FreeArc 0.50 alpha (June 22 2008):

       - GUI: fixed ability to add Windows SFX and convert SFX back to .arc

       - GUI SFX: proper displaying of filename extracted

       - Linux SFX’es was uncompressed

       - Console package was completely mis-packaged

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (June 23 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated alpha version: arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * Fixed bug in "Ñompress each file into separate archive" option

 

Note:  

 -  "Compress each file into separate archive" option is wrong worked with folders (".arc" archives were created in every folder)

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (June 24 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * Disabled call SHGetFolderPathA in console version

 

Note:

 - Arc.exe no longer call {catches?} comctl32.dll

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (June 30 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Solved {Fixed?} all problems with encoding

    * Encoding selection options: -sct for console; -sci for logfile; -scf for filenames on disk (Linux only)

    * Linux: "chmod +x" on SFX creation, "chmod -x" on -sfx-

    * FAR/TC plug-ins: support for copy/move of empty directories to/from archive, bugfixed plug-ins

    * "-ms-" disables special handling for already compressed files

    * GUI usability improved a bit

 

Note:

 - Remained problems: removing empty directory from archive (TC), copying empty directory from archive (FAR), copying to directories/from directories inside of archive (-ap)

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (September 29 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * Initial support of arguments for external compressors

 

Minor changes:

    * Ability to use spaces in [External compressor] header:

       [External compressor: ccm123, ccmx123, ccm125, ccmx125]

 

    * Calculating speed according to wall-clock execution times:

       Compressed 18 files, 11.770.274 => 2.217.049 bytes. Ratio 18.8%

       Compression time 7.57 secs. Real time 4.76 secs, speed 2.475 kB/s

 

Notes:

 - For beginning, I just replace "{options}" in packcmd with smth like "-m48 -o16" (if compressor was given as "pmm:m48:o16")

  Included arc.ini contains one example of ext. compressor utilizing new feature:

       mem = 256

       packcmd   = durilca'light e {options} $$arcdatafile$$.tmp

       unpackcmd = durilca'light d $$arcdatafile$$.dul

       packedfile = $$arcdatafile$$.dul

 

  Try "dul0:t1" compression method - it will add "-t1" to pack cmd

 

 - Now I’m open to ideas how to make this feature more practical.

  My own ideas include the following:

       - use "{...option...}" strings for customizing option exhibition. So "{-option }: will do exactly the same as "{options}"

       - add "default=..." line for specifying default options

       - add some way to automatically select compression settings according to memory available

 

   Example of using first two proposed features:

       mem = 384

       default = -m384 -t1

       packcmd   = durilca'light e {-option } $$arcdatafile$$.tmp

       unpackcmd = durilca'light d $$arcdatafile$$.dul

       packedfile = $$arcdatafile$$.dul

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (September 29 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * "{options}" strings for customizing, plus ability to specify options in decompression command too

 

Notes:

 - So, full-sized demo of new features:

       [External compressor:dul0]

       mem = 256

       default = -t1

       packcmd   = durilca'light e {options}  $$arcdatafile$$.tmp

       unpackcmd = durilca'light d {-option } $$arcdatafile$$.dul

       packedfile = $$arcdatafile$$.dul

 

 - Some more useful ones:

       [External compressor:7z]

       mem = 700

       default = -mx

       packcmd   = 7z a {-moption } $$arcpackedfile$$.7z $$arcdatafile$$.dll

       unpackcmd = 7z x              $$arcpackedfile$$.7z $$arcdatafile$$.dll

       packedfile = $$arcpackedfile$$.7z

       datafile   = $$arcdatafile$$.dll

 

  Where we can use 7z:x5 or 7z:d32m or 7z:x3:d16m to make specific options

 

 - Or how about

       [External compressor: ccm, ccmx]

       mem = 276

       default = 4

       packcmd   = {compressor} {option} $$arcdatafile$$.tmp $$arcpackedfile$$.tmp

       unpackcmd = {compressor} d $$arcpackedfile$$.tmp $$arcdatafile$$.tmp

 

  So, we can easily specify ccmx:9 for max. compression

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (September 30 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * arc1.arc now includes:

       - Updated FreeArc.exe

       - Russian/English translations with new tooltips from German version

       - All language files ever published

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (October 28 2008)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Updated CLS to current version

    * Added -m=tor:9:c1 .. -m=tor:11:c3 modes

    * Added -m1xx..-m4xx modes providing super-fast decompression using Tornado (note: they need 1gb free memory to decompress!)

    * Added paq8* compressors support (using just one block parameterized with {compressor})

 

Also: (October 10 2008)

    * New arc.ini by pat357 to support more external compressors

    * PowerPack (external compressors pack) by pat357: http://www.haskell.org/bz/freearc-powerpack.arc

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (January 5 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Tornado 0.5:

       - better compression in -m1;

       - faster -m3xt;

       - modified -m1xx..-m4xx definitions;

       - :t

       - tor:7:c1 .. tor:11:c3;

       - support for :l not power of 2

       - checks at decoding in order to prevent segfaults

 

    * GRZip multithreading!

    * Prints CPU time and Real time for operation

 

    * Added freearc-installer.sfx:

       - files are unpacked promptly to %temp%\%archive_name%

       - then runs setup.exe and closed

       - files are not deleted yet

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (January 16 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * -m2 and -m3 on binary files now works 20-30% faster

 

Note:

 - Technically speaking, for -m2 I decreased tornado hash size so now it fits in L2 cache of modern cpus, and for -m3 I’ve fixed speed loss on multi-core systems

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (January 18 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Fixed bug in Delta filter (leading to crashes)

    * -m3 - improved compression by 1% on binary files

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (January 19 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * Added Compressed/Total compressed to progress dialog

 

Note:

 - If you support some FreeArc translation, please look for "??" in your language file and translate it

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (January 20 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * Fixed "+RTS -Ksize" bug

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (January 21 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * Reporting when data cannot be decrypted:

       >Arc.exe t b.arc -p2 -p-

       FreeArc 0.50 alpha (Jan 21 2009)

       Testing archive: b.arc

       Testing 2 files, 121 bytes. Processed   0%

       ERROR: Bad password for compile.cmd in archive b.arc

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (January 24 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

   * Fixed two severe bugs:

       - program was terminated when trying to detect filetype of locked file (such as pagefile.sys)

       - "divide by zero" error when calculating "Total compressed" for GUI progress indicator

 

   * Also now "Compressed/Total compressed" line displayed only for compression commands

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (January 27 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Fixed GUI bugs:

       - First file in directory was selected after any operation if nothing was selected before

       - ArcInfo on empty.arc or non-archive was terminated program

       - DoubleClick/Enter on non-archives now executes them

 

    * arc.ini: improved MM compression in -m3xx/-m4xx

    * A little faster -m1 mode, thanks to Joachim Henke

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (January 30 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * GUI: fixed few shortcomings in "run on DoubleClick" implementation

    * Files with Russian names and spaces are now opened

    * Now columns may be sorted in asc and desc order by clicking on column title

 

Note:

 - Files after DoubleClick/Enter are launched {started?} straight (not via console)

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (February 1 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Fixed displaying of sorting indicators

    * Sorting direction now saved to arc.history and restored on next run

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (February 3 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Sorting by Modified now separates files and directories

    * Language selected via compact table

    * Dialog sizes/positions now are preserved, even between runs

    * Column widths (Name/Size/Modified) saved too

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (February 4 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Note:

 - I’ve added no-url versions in separate directory. If they got {receive?} more memory (they must not catch wininet.dll), then I’ll try to make dynamic linking of wininet.dll

 

Changes:

    * GUI: no more freezes on chdir "c:"

    * GUI: show totals in status bar at program start

    * GUI: menu of available disk drives

    * External/Tempfile: check for I/O errors

    * External: check return code of external compressors

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (February 5 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * Fixed GUI bugs:

       - freezing when going into archive with encrypted directory

       - freezing after archive operation was cancelled/returned an error

       - if decoding dialog window sizes was changed by mouse, they were not preserved on program exit

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (February 7 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * GUI: started menu reorganization

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (February 8 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * GUI: Single-click on the empty space at right clears selection, double-click selects all files

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (February 14 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * GUI: finished main menu reorganization

    * GUI: hotkeys for menu commands

    * GUI: Windows native Open/Save dialogs

    * GUI: search for filename being typed

    * GUI: archive comment editing in ArcInfo dialog

    * GUI: Ctrl +/-, Alt +/-, Shift +/- for marking files

    * GUI: saving order of columns in file list

    * Translation: 0093 Avg. size -> 0093 Avg. blocksize

    * "lt" command: technical archive listing

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (February 15 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * Fixed severe bugs

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (February 16 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * Translated main menu

 

Note:

 - Please update translations you maintain

 

Also:

 Linux version updated:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.50-linux-i386-alpha-2009-02-15.tar.bz2

 

Note:

 - Run "make" or "make local" to install

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (March 3 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * -m2/-m3/-m4 now use 96mb dictionary by default!

    * Tornado: fixed bug and speed increases by Joachim Henke, added :t parameter

    * GUI: Recompress command and locale-specific date/time display

    * GUI: custom menu/toolbar support, just copy freearc.menu.example into freearc.menu

    * GUI: ArcInfo now correctly displays number of files and directories

    * arc.ini: BCM support

    * logfile: hide passwords and cut off long cmdlines

    * Fixed error handling (it was always printed "Program terminated" instead of real error message)

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (March 6 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Added polish translation

    * Improved Cancel operation handling

    * Credits in About box

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (March 10 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Made all dialogs modal

    * CheckNews command now runs in background

    * Finished translation

    * Support for filters in Archive Open dialog

    * Fixed dialog freezes after Run command

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (March 14 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Translated error/warning messages

    * Localization for console version: --language=d:\dir\arc.russian.txt

    * Settings dialog: option to disable captions in toolbar buttons

    * New menu/toolbar by Jango; used long command names in menu and short names in toolbar

    * Added "new" language for simplifying creation of new translations from scratch

    * Fixed bug in SetWindowTitle

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (March 24 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Automatic check for updates once a day

    * Localized Yes/No/OK/Cancel/Close buttons

    * Localized compression error messages

    * Fixed problems with handling broken archives and non-archive files with .arc extension

    * Fixed problem with losing localization after command executed

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (March 26 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Large 45kb arc.ini configured for a lot of external compressors by Patrick Noyens

    * Added "Watch for new versions via Internet" checkbox in Settings dialog

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (April 4 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Speed: 10-20% faster due to use of Intel compiler for compression/decompression routines

    * GUI: added Forum/Wiki shortcuts to menu

    * GUI: disable moving-to-top for options like Compression, Encryption...

    * GUI: Windows: add "Create" button to outdir selection dialog

    * OS/RAM/maxblock/cores/language reported to freearc.org

 

Bugfixes:

    * Commands ch/k/c/rr/s shouldn't have additional arguments

    * Show (*.arc;*.exe) in ArchiveOpen dialog filters

    * Restored Yes/No translations

    * Show Yes, not _Yes in ArcInfo dialog

    * Fixed handling of "-"/"" option values and RR options

    * Ensure single-threaded access to freearc.history

 

Note:

 -  freearc.history need to be updated for new features to work

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha Linux (April 5 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated Linux version:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.50-linux-i386-alpha-2009-04-04.tar.bz2

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (April 7 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * GUI: added Recover Archive command

    * Fixed a lot of RR+UI incompatibility bugs here and there. Now all RR-related stuff should work fine

    * Tiny UI improvements, including Info page in Settings dialog, more accurate Estimated time/Speed calculation

    * Improved freearc.history, i.e. predefined sets of Compression/Protecion options

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (April 9 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Made faster: rep, delta, tta, lzma_decompress

    * Fixed hang-ups on ArcInfo/Open commands for encrypted archives

 

Note:

 - I don't made tta multithreaded yet, since it will need more time

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (April 15 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Last version before issuing new Alpha:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.50-win32-alpha-2009-04-15.exe

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-portable-0.50-win32-alpha-2009-04-15.zip

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.50-sources-alpha-2009-04-15.tar.bz2

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-console-0.50-win32-alpha-2009-04-15.exe

 

Changes:

    * GUI: Compression tab: now display speeds for 3GHz Core2Duo

    * Compression: improved some method definitions

    * GUI: use FreeArc icon for windows

    * GUI: save Maximized window state

    * facompress.dll: removed TTA/Delta and -Qinline-factor999 since they are reported to decrease speed on some computers

    * Improved error handling

    * External: fixed bug: just 256kb were copied if external program returned non-zero errcode

    * GUI: fixed bug: some files were "lost" when directory names contained space

 

Notes:

 - In order to test both program and packaging, I made it in the form of the same files as real Alpha version

 - It is the last chance to fix any remaining problems!

 

Also: (April 14 2009)

    *  Pat357 made "packers-collection" (archive of all executables involved in current arc.ini)

 

Note for "packers-collection" (by pat357):

 - I uploaded the "packers-collection" here: http://rapidshare.com/files/222546340/all_packers_17-04-2009.7z

 

 

FreeArc 0.50 alpha (April 19 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated intermediate version:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.50-win32-alpha-2009-04-19.exe

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-portable-0.50-win32-alpha-2009-04-19.zip

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.50-sources-alpha-2009-04-19.tar.bz2

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-console-0.50-win32-alpha-2009-04-19.exe

 

Changes:

    * Added icons to arc.exe & freearc.exe

    * Skin changer: more skins

    * GUI: use stock icons for Yes/No/OK/Cancel/Close buttons

    * GUI: save/restore UserID in registry in order to not lose it after reinstallation

    * freearc.menu.example: updated to match current menu

    * arc.ini: solved non-zero error code problems for packjpg, lzturbo (thanks to pat357)

    * Fixed (de)compression error handling

    * Unarc: fixed bug: crashed on errors instead of displaying error message

    * GUI: fixed bug: 'Open Archive' button doesn't work when you're currently in the root of any disk in FA GUI browser

    * GUI: change archive name in window title when it's converted to/from SFX

    * GUI: fixed bug: encrypted - edit comment - cancel -- resulted in program crash

    * GUI: Linux: implemented Run operation for scripts/executables

 

Also: (April 18 2009)

 "Packers-collection" updated

 

Change in "packers-collection" (by pat357):

    * Added several compressors like old bcm versions

 

Note for "packers-collection" (by pat357):

 - This is the version before "clean-out": http://rapidshare.com/files/222515306/all_packers.7z

 

 

FreeArc 0.51 alpha (April 24 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Release Candidate:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.51-win32.exe

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-portable-0.51-win32.zip

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-console-0.51-win32.exe

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.51-sources.tar.bz2

 

Changes:

    * GTK updated to version 2.16

    * GRZip: report/correct memory usage with respect to amount of cores used

    * GRZip: allow blocks up to 32 mb to improve m/t performance

    * GUI: progress indicator now shows current compressed/total compressed sizes even on decompression

    * GUI: made toolbar buttons non-homogeneous

    * Compression: tor:ah/al parameters support (auxiliary hash for -7..-11 modes)

    * arc.ini: reorganized a bit to separate my and pat357 compressors definitions

    * Unarc: delete partially-decompressed files on error; return errlevel=2 on any error or user-requested exit

    * Fixed exe->arc renaming bug (updated freearc.history to use proper SFX option)

    * Linux: fixed problems with directory browse dialogs

 

 

FreeArc 0.51 (April 28 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Release

  http://freearc.org/download/0.51/FreeArc-0.51-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/0.51/FreeArc-portable-0.51-win32.zip

 

  http://freearc.org/download/0.51/FreeArc-0.51-linux-i386.tar.bz2

  http://freearc.org/download/0.51/freearc-0.51-i386.deb

  http://freearc.org/download/0.51/FreeArc-0.51-sources.tar.bz2

  http://freearc.org/download/0.51/FreeArc-PowerPack-0.51.exe

 

Main changes:

    * Significant improvements in GUI and lots of fixed problems, result in that now GUI version is more stable,  feature-rich and may be used

   for daily work

    * -m2/-m3/-m4 modes now use 96mb dictionary by default. Speed/compression ratio was also improved in many other ways

    * Fixed three (de)compression bugs - while these are not critical, I recommend you to upgrade

 

Also

    * GUI: Skin changer provides more themes; default theme was also improved

    * GUI: You can change menu/toolbar (just copy freearc.menu.example to freearc.menu and edit it as you wish)

    * GUI: Run any program/document just by double-click (or Enter) on it

    * GUI: Single-click on the empty space at the right clears selection, double-click selects all files

    * GUI: If you move/resize any window, dialog or filemanager column - its size and position are preserved

    * GUI: You can sort columns by clocking on column header, second click reverses sorting; sorting order is preserved too

    * GUI: FAR-like keys for marking files: Shift+ Shift- Ctrl+ Ctrl- Alt+ Alt-

    * GUI: You can start a file search by typing the first letters of its name. *? wildcards are also supported

    * GUI: Every day FreeArc automatically checks for program updates via Internet

    * FAR/TC plug-ins: support for copy/move of empty directories to/from archive

    * Windows: unicode (utf-16) cmdline processing

    * Encoding selection options: -sct for console; -sci for logfile; -scf for filenames on disk (Linux only)

    * "-ms-" option: disable fast compression of already compressed files

    * "lt" command: technical archive listing

    * --language=LANGFILE option provides translation of error/warning messages for console version

    * -rr0.1%, -rr0.01% options support (translated to -rr0*4kb, -rr0*64kb)

    * -m1xx..-m4xx: very fast decompression modes (by default, require 1gb of free memory to decompress!)

    * Tornado: support for :t :ah :al options, :l that's not power of 2; tor:7:c1 .. tor:11:c3; checks at decoding in order to prevent segfaults

    * Installer SFX-es: freearc-installer*.sfx: extracts into tempdir, runs setup.exe and then optionally deletes extracted files

    * External compressors: Copies data intact when compression program returned non-zero error code

    * External compressors: Raises error when decompression program returned non-zero error code

    * External compressors: Improved syntax for description of external compressors

    * arc.ini: large 40kb variant with support for External Compressors PowerPack

    * Initial CLS support (external compressors in cls-*.dll), see Addons\CLS directory

    * Error code 21 is returned when archive/file cannot be decrypted using supplied password

    * Logfile: hiding passwords used in cmdline/cfgfile

 

Building FreeArc users community:

    * Added new page: http://freearc.org/Community.aspx

    * New FreeArc forum and Wiki are available via the program menu

    * Send bug reports and enhancement requests via Community page at program site

    * Source repository is at https://freearc.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/freearc

    * And yes, now we accept donations via PayPal ;)

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (May 2 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Note:

 - Should be extracted over FreeArc 0.51 installation

 

Change:

    * Unarc/SFX: support for external compressors and tempfiles

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (May 3 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * Fixed rep:1gb memaloc problem!

 

Note:

 - Now all those game packagers can use -mx compression

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (May 4 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * Fixed rep (May 3 2009)

 

Notes:

 - I've started development of fashell.dll using sources from: http://www.burgaud.com/scite-context-menu/

 - Also, I’ve started FreeArc blog: http://freearc.blogspot.com/

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (May 7 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Fixed issue 53:

       - rebased zlib1.dll and facompress.dll to 0x00400000

       - now wininet.dll is loading only on actual usage

 

    * Fixed issue 45:

       - FireFox says "don't know protocol d", when open file "d:\dir\file" as "d://..." URL

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (May 10 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * Fixed issue 30:

       - Cascaded menus, directories & multiple selection support

       - Now archives are created/extracted in current dir, rather than c:\windows

       - Now extension provides Right Click Menu

 

Note:

 - Menu items are defined in ArcShellExt-user.lua

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (May 15 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Integrated All2Arc support ("Convert to FreeArc format")

    * Explorer integration support can be enabled/disabled via Settings dialog, no more need in additional cmd files

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (May 19 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Fixed issue 73:

       - Configurable directory with external compressors could be added to PATH when executing these compressors

       - Fixed bugs in freearc-installer.sfx  

 

    * Fixed issue 8:

       - Modified SFX logo

       - Redesigned main and extraction dialog window

       - Caption of main and extraction dialog window changed

       - Animation removed from extraction dialog

       - Fixed issue with incorrect MANIFEST resource in XP and Vista

 

Also:

 All2Arc Release Candidate (May 23 2009):

  all2arc_v05_RC.7z

 

Changes in All2Arc v0.5 2009-05-23 (by Black_Fox):

    * Preliminary Unicode support

    * Added processing of multiple archives at once ("all2arc.exe -- archive1.rar archive2.7z")

    * Possibility to pass arguments to FreeArc ("all2arc.exe -mx -md128 archive1.rar")

    * Compilation parameters improvements, resulting in smaller file (thanks Bulat)

    * Showing errors/questions in GUI through MessageBox

    * Improved check for existing archives

    * Improved cleaning up of temp folders in case of failure

 

Note for All2Arc 2009-05-23 v0.5 (by Black_Fox):

 - Let me know if something doesn't work as expected. If everything's ok, I'll put new version into the wiki

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (May 31 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Fixed issue 29:

       - "Convert to .arc" command both in FreeArc menu and RCM.

 

    * Fixed issue 30:

       - Integrated new version of All2Arc that fixed several bugs

       - FreeArc SFX-es are now recognized and supported like regular archives

       - Added commands: convert to SFX, convert from SFX, convert other archive to FreeArc SFX

       - 100% Unicode support

       - Individual commands can be disabled via Settings dialog

       - Now you can select multiple freearc/foreign archives and perform operation on them all

       - DLL (un)registration now executed only when you really changed this setting and hidden from user

 

 

Also: (June 4 2009)

New FreeArc PowerPack – ext.compressors pack for FreeArc:

 http://www.haskell.org/bz/freearc-powerpack.arc

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (June 5 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * Added Add../Extract.../Modify.../Join... commands to Explorer context menu

 

 

Also: (June 12 2009)

 FreeArc4InnoSetup 1.0:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc4InnoSetup.zip 

 

Changes in FreeArc4InnoSetup 1.0:

    * freearc_example.iss - support for extracting .arc archives with progress indicator in InnoSetup installers

    * Created library unarc.dll

 

Note for FreeArc4InnoSetup 1.0:

 - Should be also usable for other installers and other programs that need to decompress .arc files

 

Also: (June 13 2009)

 Updated FreeArc4InnoSetup 1.0:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc4InnoSetup.zip

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (June 15 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * New, unicode-aware version of All2Arc utility (all2arc_v051.arc.zip dated June 7 2009)

    * Added Convert... command to Explorer context menu

    * Added Convert to FreeArc menu

    * unarc.dll for extracting FreeArc archives in other programs

    * Example of Inno Setup installation script that extracts files from FreeArc archives using unarc.dll

 

Changes in All2Arc v0.51 2009-06-07 (by Black_Fox):

    * Unicode support tested with CZE, SVK, RUS, CHN and JPN characters in filenames => works

    * Following changes by Bulat Ziganshin, thanks:

       - Fixed wrong allocation size, all crashes should be gone now

       - Optimized temporary directory creation

       - Multiple small commandline improvements

 

 

Also: (June 17 2009)

 Updated FreeArc4InnoSetup 1.1:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc4InnoSetup.zip

 

Changes in FreeArc4InnoSetup 1.1:

    * Full English translation

    * Overall progress indicator for all archives in the installation

    * Graceful exit when archive being extracted is corrupt

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (June 20 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * wininet.dll: dynamic loading

    * Polished compression method definitions

    * -mx sometimes failed on large files

    * Program hanged up after compressing 8k files selected in file manager

 

Note:

 - Btw, updated compression methods definitions are in freearc.history file, so you may want to update this file or at least copy "compression=..." lines from it

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (June 30 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * -ld default value sometimes didn't work

    * Re-read archive after modification operation

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (July 26 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

     * Fixed bug introduced in previous alpha – FreeArc GUI crashed after any compression operation

     * Commands like "freearc a a" show warnings inside progress dialog)

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (July 27 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Note:

 - Issue 62 implemented

 

Changes:

    * Added option --pause-before-exit with the following settings:

       on – always make a pause

       off – never make a pause

       on-warnings – make pause if there were any warnings due operation

       on-error – if program exits due to error

 

    * Default settings for the option:

       off – for console mode

       on – for "test" command in GUI mode

       on-warnings – for other commands in GUI mode

 

    * In FileManager mode this option is ignored

 

    * Errors and warnings are displayed inside GUI window (in non-FileManager mode), so you can see  them both due operation and after it was finished

    * Finally, Escape key now may be used to exit program (in non-FileManager mode), like Alt-F4. When you exit program after operation was finished, "Abort operation?" isn't asked

 

Also:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    *  Improved handling of broken archives

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (August 2 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * GUI: after operation was completed, Cancel becomes the default key in progress dialog. So you can close it by pressing just Enter/Space

    * Fixed bug in dict (addressing memory beyond end of buffer) and a few UI problems

    * Included latest InnoSetup scripts & dll

    * Added license info to About and console help

    * facompress.dll: now loaded only from directory where FreeArc executable resides since loading something from PATH may lead to FreeArc versions incompatibility

    * LZMA: decompressor now writes data in 8mb chunks (instead of dictsize) that means smoother progress indicator

    * Error messages: now reports "read error" or "write error" instead of "I/O error"

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (August 3 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * Line "$precomp $compressed" in arc.group now denote $precomp if such group presents  in current compression method and $compressed otherwise

 

Note:

 - This allows fine-grain definition of compression groups, for example:

       $precomp

       *.pdf

       $precomp $compressed

       *.zip

       *.jpg

       $compressed

       *.arc

  Files in second group will be included in group $compressed in -m4 compression mode, but in $precomp in -max compression mode

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (August 4 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Added translation support for 40+ strings. dear translators, please update your files

    * arc.ini: adding "solid=0" to external compressor definition forces FreeArc to create separate solid block for every file compressed by this method (or by chain starting with this compression method)

 

Note:

 - For example:

       [External compressor:jpg]

       mem = 10

       packcmd = timer packjpg $$arcdatafile$$.jpg

       unpackcmd = timer packjpg $$arcdatafile$$.pjg

       datafile = $$arcdatafile$$.jpg

       packedfile = $$arcdatafile$$.pjg

       solid = 0

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (August 9 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 Updated arc-linux.arc

 

Changes:

    * Detach button in Add/Extract dialogs for running command as separate FreeArc instance

    * Move command now deletes read-only files

    * Fixed bug: Hang up after cancelling operation in non-FileManager mode

    * Up-to-date Linux executables

 

Also: (August 15 2009)

 Updated http://freearc.org/FuturePlans.aspx

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (August 18 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Updated arc1.arc

 

Changes:

    * Create tempfiles in subdirs of %TEMP

    * Settings: temporary files directory

    * New option --create-in-workdir

    * Don't close program on Exit if (de)compression operation is still performed

    * ArcInfo: Show solid blocks list (like "lt" command)

    * Added option "Keep window on top" to progress indicator

    * Fixed: Move command should delete read-only dirs

    * Fixed: -dp option checks existence of wrong directory

 

Also:

    * Included All2Arcv0.52 2009-08-15

 

Changes in All2Arc v0.52 2009-08-15:

    * Cancel all operations after any of external programs fails

    * Directory for temporary files use is obtained from TEMP environment variable

 

 

Also: (August 19 2009)

  Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * Fixed minor bug with locating files

 

 

Also: (August 20 2009)

  Updated arc1.arc

 

Change:

    * Fixed minor issue with naming archives created by ArcShellExt

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (August 22 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 RC for RC:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.52-win32.exe

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-portable-0.52-win32.zip

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-console-0.52-win32.exe

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.52-sources.tar.bz2

 

Main changes:

    * Now we have Max. and Ultra compression modes

    * ppmd: 512->384 mb in max/ultra modes

    * freearc.history auto-updated to have all new compression modes on the first program run

  

Note:

- Please, play with them. Check how they work being installed over existing 0.51/0.52 installation and from scratch

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (August 23 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 RC for RC:

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.52-win32.exe

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-portable-0.52-win32.zip

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-console-0.52-win32.exe

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.52-sources.tar.bz2

 

Changes (from August 22 2009):

    * Ultra mode now really uses up to 1.5gb REP dictionary

    * -ld default value was increased up to 1600mb

    * REP now can use more than 2 memory blocks for decompression, finally solving any memory fragmentation problems

 

Note:

 - For best compression, Win-x64 or Unix are recommended

 

Also:

 Updated RC for RC

 

Change:

    * Fixed reporting for users with non-English language selected

 

Note:

 - FreeArc made wrong unicode symbols coding, so referencing in general did not get to server

 

 

Also: (August 30 2009)

 Made an installer of FreeArcPowerPack: http://freearc.org/download/0.51/FreeArc-PowerPack-0.51.exe

 

Notes for installer of FreeArc PowerPack:

 - It unpacks compressors inside standard FreeArc location and adds them to PATH, so non-techie finally can use it easily

 - There is also http://freearc.org/download/0.51/FreeArc-PwerPack-0.51.arc that contains the same files without installer

 

Also:

 Renewed http://freearc.org/Screenshots.aspx

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (September 1 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New "RC for RC":

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-0.52-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-portable-0.52-win32.zip

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-console-0.52-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-0.52-sources.tar.bz2

 

Changes:

    * Installer: reboots when required for overwriting/removing ArcShellExt*.dll

    * --register option used by installer (no more settings dialog popped up from installer)

    * Installer: remove PowerPack on FreeArc deinstallation

    * Installer: added license

    * Settings (workdir, logfile) now are used when executing standalone commands (in particular, running from Explorer menu)

    * Settings dialog: when language changed, make the same change in Explorer context menu

    * Translated "Solid blocks" page in ArcInfo dialog

 

Note:

 - I still have 5 problems remaining to fix before RC

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (September 5 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New "RC for RC":

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-0.52-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-portable-0.52-win32.zip

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-console-0.52-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-0.52-sources.tar.bz2

 

Changes:

    * Support for "FreeArc.exe @cmdfile" command line syntax allowing passing huge command lines via files

    * Fixed: Explorer integration and Detach command now can handle huge filelists using above syntax

    * Fixed: let's build path to tempdir if it doesn't exist

    * Fixed: bug in unarc/sfx that leads to crashes when tempfile was used

    * GUI: narrower "Add to archive" dialog (900->500 pixels for Russian language!)

 

Notes:

 - 3 critical issues remaining to fix before RC

 - Dear translators, please update your files so they will be ready for RC

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (September 8 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New test version

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.52-win32.exe

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-portable-0.52-win32.zip

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-console-0.52-win32.exe

  http://www.haskell.org/bz/FreeArc-0.52-sources.tar.bz2

 

Changes:

    * Fixed printing of error messages

    * Tried to fix hang-ups after Cancelling operation in FileManager mode

 

Note:

 - Please try as much as possible to Cancel operations and report whether it still aborts or works unpredictably in such situations

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (September 9 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New test version:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-0.52-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-portable-0.52-win32.zip

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-console-0.52-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-0.52-sources.tar.bz2

 

Changes:

    * Fixed bug in 64-bit Explorer extension

    * After cancelling standalone operation, it shuts up gracefully

 

Notes:

 - 32-bit extension doesn't work for me, is it the same for you?

 - I've added two strings to translate. New strings should make more clear situation when operation is cancelled by user

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (September 10 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New test version:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-0.52-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-portable-0.52-win32.zip

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-console-0.52-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-0.52-sources.tar.bz2

 

Changes:

    * Fixed bug in 32-bit Explorer extension

    * rundll32.dll not runned if integration setting wasn't changed (it was regression one-two weeks ago)

 

Note:

 - Since GUID was changed, you need to uninstall/unregister old version before installing new one

 

 

Also: (September 12 2009)

Updated FreeArc PowerPack:

  http://freearc.org/download/0.51/FreeArc-PowerPack-0.51.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/0.51/FreeArc-PowerPack-0.51.arc

 

Notes for FreeArc PowerPack:

 - This version contain unpacked versions of compressors

 - If you can check it with antiviruses you have - please do so and write here results

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (September 18 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New “RC for RC”:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-0.52-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-portable-0.52-win32.zip

 

Note:

 - I started work on lzma 9.x integration. Decompression part is done, so I use it for unarc/sfx/dll because lzma 9.x decompression is about 10% faster than old one

 

Changes:

    * LZMA: don't use lzma_decompress from facompress.dll since it's slower

    * GUI: check that password and its confirmation are the same

    * InnoSetup scripts version 3.3: fixed several bugs

    * Unarc/SFX/dll: remove tempfiles on quit

    * Unarc/SFX/dll: -w option for setting temporary files directory

    * Unarc/SFX/dll: lzma decompression made 15% faster by using lzma 9.07!

    * ArcShellExt: automatically re-register dlls on OK in Settings dialog if version/directory was changed

    * Compression: fixed hang up when compressing splash.bmp (file with huge repetitive strings)

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (September 22 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New “RC for RC”:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-0.52-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-portable-0.52-win32.zip

 

Changes:

    * Fixed stupid compression bug introduced in last testversion (September 18 2009)

    * Sometimes freearc aborted without printing errmsg, it's fixed now

 

Note:

 - Fixed bug in grzip modification

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (September 23 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New “RC for RC”:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-0.52-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-portable-0.52-win32.zip

 

Note:

 - Finally, LZMA 9.07 goes into FreeArc!

 

Changes:

    * Maximum compression: 20% faster

    * Normal compression: 10% faster

    * Fast compression: no change

    * Decompression: 20% faster (30% faster than freearc 0.51)

    * Memory blocks are allocated starting with largest one (important for 1gb dicts)

    * When compression method is truncated due to memory shortage, we are no more round dict to 2^n or 1.5*2^n value

 

 

Also: (September 26 2009)

Updated FreeArc PowerPack:

  FA Powerpack update 26-09-2009.7z

 

Change in FreeArc PowerPack (by pat357):

    * Updated compressors :

       - bcm v0.08 / bcm v0.09

       - Nanozip v0.07

       - Parallel Pigzip & Pbzip2

       - Slug X

       - Open BWT v1.5

       - Hook v1.4

       - e89 transform

       - Qpress v0.37

       - Flashzip v0.99b4

       - Paq8px v64

       - Tiff preprocessor

       - bmf v2.0

       - BWTMix v0 , v1

       - o2rc & o3 BWT postcoders

       - CSC v3.1

       - ... few more

 

Notes for FreeArc PowerPack (by pat357):

 - The option "solid =0" in arc.ini allows us to pack Multimedia files like WAV, BMP in non-solid mode, which is needed for most external MM-packers.

 - This SHOULD allow you to use TAK, OFR, MAC for packing WAV files and BMF v2.0 for BMP files, BUT:  there appears to be a problem because most MM packers don't keep all header info from the wav/bmp files and are therefore not completely LOSSLESS (even not in so called "lossless" mode).  This will give CRC errors on unpacking, even if the archive is OK.

 - The one that keeps the headers for WAV is MMA (C. Martelock), so this should not give this "problems".

 - Have a look at XMM1, XMM4 em XMM9 in Arc.ini or try

       arc a -mxmm4 test <wav+other>

  to test the multimedia mode. (you should also define a sub-"group" for .WAV files and .BMP files in your arc.groups.)

 - Have fun testing !

 - PS: you also need the original PowerPack from http://freearc.org/download/0.51/Fre..rPack-0.51.exe

 

 

FreeArc 0.52 alpha (October 4 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New RC for RC:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-PowerPack-0.52.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-PowerPack-0.52.arc

 

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-update-0.52-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-portable-update-0.52-win32.zip

 

Change:

    * Added FreeArc PowerPack 0.52

 

Also:

    * Updated arc.ini to support new FreeArc PowerPack,

    * Removed Wiki from program menu,

    * Forums now are redirected through freearc.org

 

Also:

Updated Linux version with Oct4 version:

 http://www.haskell.org/bz/arc-linux.arc

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 RC (October 4 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Compiled RC files:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-0.60RC-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-portable-0.60RC-win32.zip

 

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-console-0.60RC-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-0.60RC-sources.tar.bz2

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-PowerPack-0.60RC.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-PowerPack-0.60RC.arc

 

Changes:

    * Improved FreeArc.ico and freearc.sfx/freearc.exe/arc.exe built-in icons (developed by PAQer)

    * Used small bmp/icon for mini/tiny SFX versions

    * LZMA: use 1.125x memory for dictionaries > 768mb

    * LZMA: display ERROR for dict > 959 mb

 

Note:

 - We have one day to check that everything is ok before I will make official announcement

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 RC (October 5 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 RC (Release Candidate)

  http://freearc.org/download/0.60RC/FreeArc-0.60RC-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/0.60RC/FreeArc-portable-0.60RC-win32.zip

 

  http://freearc.org/download/0.60RC/FreeArc-console-0.60RC-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/0.60RC/FreeArc-0.60RC-sources.tar.bz2

  http://freearc.org/download/0.60RC/FreeArc-PowerPack-0.60RC.exe

 

Main changes:

    * Fixed a lot of problems and bugs with memory usage, maximum compression, tempfiles etc

    * Explorer integration (right-click context menu items on archives, files and directories)

    * Conversion of non-FreeArc archives to FreeArc format using All2Arc utility by Black_Fox

    * Support for using FreeArc archives in InnoSetup installers: http://freearc.org/InnoSetup.aspx

    * LZMA made 10-20% faster

    * Added Ultra compression mode with 1.5 gb dictionary

    * Included license file clearly stating that FreeArc is free for any usage

 

Full changelog: http://code.google.com/p/freearc/issues/list?can=1&q=status:fixed%20milestone=0.60

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 RC2 Linux (October 7 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 RC2 (Second Release Candidate) for Linux

  http://freearc.googlecode.com/files/FreeArc-0.60RC2-linux-i386.tar.bz2

 

Changes:

    * Help files (on GUI and cmdline) now opens from menu as they should do

    * "Make" correctly installs config files, so program no more needs “Sudo” to work

 

Note:

 - For Linux version LZMA was used, due to compression problems with LZMA2

 

 

Also: (October 12 2009)

Updated FreeArc PowerPack:

  http://files.mail.ru/2Q2ZGJ

 

Changes in FreeArc PowerPack (by pat357):

     - Fixed some false alarm from AV

     - Removed all not needed files from the PowerPack (SFX creators, UPACK,...)

     - Removed some old "speed optimized" versions of BALZ, Paq8oxx, Paq9a from the archive. Adapted ARC.INI to maintain compatibility.

     - Fixed an issue with Flashzip v0.99 in arc.ini

     - Added some more compressors: BWMonstr v1/v2, CSC31 final, rings v16, paq8px64, paq8q, LZP2, M03,...

     - The whole archive is now only 7 MB (.7z) !!

 

Notes for FreeArc PowerPack (by pat357):

 - On "Virustotal.com" now 27 scanners from 38 report everything clean. (Got still 11 false alarms though, see http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/c...c5c-1255342007)

 - You might notice that some packers are no longer packed by any exe-packer. It seems that even UPX causes false alarms for some AV. All files are below 1 MB, so further exe-packing might not be wise considering the risk of causing false alarms

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 RC (October 15 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New version RC:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-update-0.60RC-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-portable-update-0.60RC-win32.zip

 

Changes:

    * New FreeArc PowerPack provided by pat357 (dated October 12 2009)

    * Updated Japanese translation

    * Updated arc.ini to support some new names of external compressors

    * Tornado: improved memory allocation

    * Improved checking for news

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 RC (October 17 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New version RC:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-update-0.60RC-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-portable-update-0.60RC-win32.zip

 

Changes:

    * ArcShellExt: added arj and other extensions to Archive Conversion operation

    * GUI: fixed bug with non-exiting program on Close

    * A few new translations

 

Notes:

 - Hopefully it doesn't hang anymore, please test it in all possible operations

 - FreeArc SVN repository was moved. New address is http://freearc.org:8080/freearc/trunk

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 RC (October 18 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New version RC:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-update-0.60RC-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-portable-update-0.60RC-win32.zip

 

Changes:

    * Solid blocks in ArcInfo: now you can copy information from these cells and size/position of columns are preserved

    * homepage/newspage/forum/wiki: opens localized versions of these pages if available

    * Settings dialog: perform reassociation/unassociation only if Association setting was really changed; so it no more brings UAC on every call and no more overwrite/remove .arc associations made by other programs

    * First search for config files (arc.ini .. freearc.history) in %APPDATA%\FreeArc

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 RC (October 20 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New version RC:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-update-0.60RC-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-portable-update-0.60RC-win32.zip

 

Change:

    * Caching of decompressed files before writing them to disk (cache size may be set by --cache option)

 

Notes:

 - Please check whether it speeds up decompression operations, especially for archives containing thousands of files. I don't found any permanent speedup on my Vista

 - Also I’ve created Google group for FreeArc translators: http://groups.google.ru/group/freear...tors?lnk=gcimv. It's recommended to subscribe there (via email or rss) if you maintain one of FreeArc translations

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 RC (October 21 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New version RC:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-update-0.60RC-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-portable-update-0.60RC-win32.zip

 

Changes:

    * Updated All2Arc (Black_Fox fixed problem with *.tar.*)

    * Merged and improved Contributors.txt/Credits list

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 RC (October 22 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New version RC:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-update-0.60RC-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-portable-update-0.60RC-win32.zip

 

Changes:

    * Fixed filetype detection for incompressible data: now it returns "$precomp $compressed". So -max can work

    * freearc.ini: joined with feearc.history (at the last end!). Merge is done automatically on installation/first run, but you are warned

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 RC (October 24 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New version RC:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-update-0.60RC-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-portable-update-0.60RC-win32.zip

 

Changes:

    * Removed 7999 files limit in ArcShellExt

    * ArcShellExt scripts now can use BOM and CR/LFs

    * ArcShellExt may be installed into paths with non-latin1 names

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 RC (October 28 2009)

---------------------

Status:

New version RC:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-update-0.60RC-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-portable-update-0.60RC-win32.zip

 

Changes:

    * Added "Use personal settings" checkbox to installer. It's enabled by default and makes FreeArc store its config files in %APPDATA% directory, making program compatible with UAC and non-admin users

    * ArcShellExt: allow to compress single iso/tar/arj/... files

    * Installer now opens HTML Whatsnew file

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 RC (November 3 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New version RC:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-update-0.60RC-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-portable-update-0.60RC-win32.zip

 

Changes:

    * Disabled caching on decompression (added at October 20)

    * New *experimental* multithreading compression modes -mex1 .. -mex4

    * Compression meta-algorithm 4x4. For example, 4x4:t4:i2:tor:3:1m means "run 4 threads compressing using tor:3:1m with 2 more threads doing I/O"

 

Notes:

 - New modes -mex1 .. -mex4 are not yet optimized for text compression. But binary files compression is amazing:

                                 Size, bytes      Ratio    Compression time   Compression speed   Testing time   Testing speed

     uncompressed     690.514.620    100%            - - -                          - - -                         - - -               - - -

     -mex1                 273.913.476    39.6%         4.36 secs            158.302 kB/s              2.79 secs     247.585 kB/s

     -mex2                 224.948.347    32.5%        11.58 secs             59.645 kB/s              3.40 secs     202.973 kB/s

     -mex3                 204.953.651    29.6%        19.28 secs             35.808 kB/s              5.30 secs     130.212 kB/s

     -mex4                 186.885.523    27.0%        55.79 secs             12.378 kB/s              5.19 secs     132.945 kB/s

 
 - Old modes for comparison (and you know that FreeArc is the fastest archiver already):

                                 Size, bytes      Ratio    Compression time   Compression speed   Testing time   Testing speed

     -m1                    270.728.786     39.2%          9.97 secs            69.287 kB/s               7.82 secs      88.358 kB/s

     -m2                    213.875.449     30.9%        45.14 secs            15.297 kB/s               9.89 secs      69.855 kB/s

     -m3                    189.380.927     27.4%      116.48 secs              5.928 kB/s             16.96 secs      40.726 kB/s

     -m4                    175.300.927     25.3%      204.83 secs              3.371 kB/s             16.63 secs      41.535 kB/s

     -mx -ld96m       168.735.477     24.4%      355.63 secs              1.942 kB/s             15.89 secs      43.450 kB/s

 

 - New modes will remain in the 0.60 and following alphas, but they are still experimental, meaning that

       - compression format may be changed at any time, so you will be unable to decompress such archives

       - they are new (unless we count 4x4.exe as prototype), so they may contain bugs

       - they are not yet as efficient as possible, in particular compression is bad for binary files in -mex4 and text files in -mex3/4

 

- So, my goal, as usual, is to show you the technology, debug it, optimize it, find best compression parameters and finally replace -m1..-m4 with -mex1..-mex5 in 0.70 or so

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 RC (November 5 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New version RC:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-update-0.60RC-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-portable-update-0.60RC-win32.zip

  arc.arc

 

Changes:

    * By popular requests, restored arc.arc distribution variant

    * LZP decompression made 2x faster, meaning 20% faster -m3t decompression and 5% faster -m4t..9t decompression

    * New mode -mex5 = -m4b + m/t ppmd

 

Notes:

 -                              Size, bytes      Ratio    Compression time   Compression speed   Testing time   Testing speed

     uncompressed     100.000.000    100%            - - -                         - - -                          - - -               - - -

     -mex5t                  23.020.387    23.0%        18.90 secs               5.291 kB/s            11.17 secs        8.953 kB/s

     -m4t                     22.921.358    22.9%        33.23 secs               3.009 kB/s            26.48 secs        3.777 kB/s

    

 - At average, it's 2x faster with 0.5% less compression

 

Also: (November 12 2009)

- FreeArc SVN repository was moved. New address is http://svn.freearc.org/freearc/trunk/

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 RC (November 18 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New version RC:

  arc.arc

 

Changes:
    * Unarc/SFX/dll: improved memory handling so it no more creates tempfiles on rep:1gb and fragmented memory
    * Unarc/SFX/dll: added 4x4 method support
    * Increased compression a bit for -mex1/2
    * 4x4: reliable error handling
    * 4x4: i0 support

Note: 
 - I've seriously modified 4x4. Please make as much tests as possible to check that there are no bugs

 

Also:

 Updated FreeArc4InnoSetup 3.4:

  http://freearc.org/download/InnoSetup/FreeArc4InnoSetup3_4.zip

 

Change in FreeArc4InnoSetup 3.4:

    * Improved unarc.dll – it no more creates tempfiles on rep:1gb decompression and fragmented memory

 

Also:

 New version RC:

  arc.arc

 

Change:
    * Fixed xppmd problem

 

 

Also: (November 22 2009) 

First public version of SuperREP – srep 0.1:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/srep.exe

 

Note for srep 0.1:

 - SuperRep – it is program (preprocessor) for data repetitions search on very long distances (up to 24 gb)

 

Also: 

 Updated srep 0.2: http://freearc.org/download/testing/srep.exe

 

 Changes in srep 0.2:

    * Added 64-bit version: http://freearc.org/download/testing/srep64.exe

    * Now they output compressed data, but there is no decompression yet

 

 

Also: (November 23 2009) 

 Updated srep 0.3:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/srep.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/srep64.exe

 

Change in srep 0.3:

    * Now decompression works too

 

Notes for srep 0.3:

 - I've constructed the following batch for its testing:

       timer srep.exe %1 1

       timer srep.exe -d 1 2

       arc a a -mcrc %1 2

       arc v a

  Archive listing given by last command should show the same CRC values for both files

 

Also: (November 23 2009)

 Updated srep 0.6:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/srep.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/srep64.exe

 

Changes in srep 0.6:

    * Fixed 64-bit version, now it properly handles files >2gb

    * Fixed decompression with non-default -l

    * -s prints stats after each block

 

Also: (November 23 2009)

 Updated srep 0.7:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/srep.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/srep64.exe

 

Changes in srep 0.7:

    * Reduced memory usage down to 6-8% of filesize. For example, 24gb file needs 256+256+960 mb chunks

    * Now hash keeps address of the last chunk with the same contents

    * Hashing improved a little

    * Fixed WinXP crashing bug

 

Note for srep 0.7:

 - 32-bit and 64-bit versions are 100% compatible with each other

 

 

Also: (November 24 2009) 

 Officially released srep 0.8:

  http://freearc.org/download/research/srep08.zip

  http://svn.freearc.org/freearc/trunk/Compression/REP/srep.cpp

 

Changes in srep 0.8:

    * Better compression due to improved hashing and compressed format

    * Faster compression on files <1gb

    * MD5 integrity checking on decompressed data

    * First 8 bytes of compressed file contains SREP signature, helping programs like Unix Magic

    * Exit code == 0 on success

 

Notes for srep 0.8:

 - SuperREP 0.8 was officially released as LZ77 compression algorithm (preprocessor) that supports multi-gigabyte dictionaries (for example, compression with 25gb dictionary uses only 1.5 gb of memory)

 - It will be added to FreeArc 0.60 PowerPack

 

 - Example of srep section for arc.ini:

       [External compressor:srep]

       ;options  = l%d (minimal match length)

       packcmd   = srep {options} $$arcdatafile$$.tmp $$arcpackedfile$$.tmp

       unpackcmd = srep -d $$arcpackedfile$$.tmp $$arcdatafile$$.tmp

 

 

Also: (November 28 2009) 

- Improved arc.ini section:

       [External compressor:srep]

       ;options  = l%d (minimal match length, default=512)

       packcmd   = srep {options} $$arcdatafile$$.tmp $$arcpackedfile$$.tmp

       unpackcmd = srep -d $$arcpackedfile$$.tmp $$arcdatafile$$.tmp

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 RC (November 30 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New version RC:

  arc.arc

 

Changes:
    * UAC compatibility - when you change Explorer Integration in the Settings dialog, it asks your permission

    * Allow to enable/disable Personal Settings and Explorer Integration due installation

    * SREP added to PowerPack and arc.ini

    * TTA: improved memory handling

    * -mex1..5: added fast compression for already compressed files

    * UI: use "1,234,567" instead of "1.234.567"

 

Also:

 New version RC:

  arc.arc

 

Change:
    * Fixed problem with registering ArcShellExt-64.dll

 

Also:

 Updated srep 0.8:

  http://freearc.org/download/research/srep08.zip

 

Change in srep 0.8:

    * Added Linux executable

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 RC (December 1 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New version RC:

  arc.arc

 

Change:
    * Fixed attempt to run 64-bit ArcShellExt dll on 32-bit OSes

 

Also:

Added HFCB – Huge Files Compression Benchmark

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 RC (December 2 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New version RC:

  arc.arc

 

Change:
    * Archive extraction now performs I/O in background, making whole operation much faster

Note:
- Example:
     Testing time: cpu 81.23 secs, real 85.23 secs. Speed 49,797 kB/s
     OLD: Extraction time: cpu 84.61 secs, real 148.90 secs. Speed 28,503 kB/s
     NEW: Extraction time: cpu 97.56 secs, real 93.00 secs. Speed 45,637 kB/s

 

Also:

Updated HFCB: added CSC and more FreeArc modes

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 RC (December 3 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New version RC:

  arc.arc

 

Changes:
    * Fixed bug with TTA (wav files)
    * -mex5t now works everywhere, but multithreaded only on post-XP systems with facompress_mt.dll
    * New/changed compression modes -mex5..9

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 RC3 Linux (December 6 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 RC3 (Third Release Candidate) for Linux:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-0.60RC3-linux-i386.tar.bz2

 

Changes:

    * LZMA updated to 9.07, so now it is 10-20% faster

    * -mex modes implementation

    * And everything else I’ve implemented since Oct 7

 

Note:

 - Consider this as the last chance to report bug before 0.60 will be released

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 RC (December 7 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New version RC:

  arc.arc

 

Changes:
    * GUI: fixed deletion of empty directories, subdirs inside other directories, files in root dir - all inside archives

    * Restore directory modification times on archive extraction

    * Caching scheme modified a bit. Tell me if it becomes worse

    * TTA: use BigAlloc() in order to prevent memory fragmentation

 

 

Also: (December 8 2009)

Updated HFCB: updated CSC/7-zip results (faster I/O due to 50Gb partition), added more 7-zip modes (m/t lzma2 and bzip2)

 

Also: (December 10 2009)

 Updated FreeArc PowerPack:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-PowerPack-0.60RC.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-PowerPack-0.60RC.arc

 

Change in FreeArc PowerPack:

    * Now he is compatible with AMD processors

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 RC (December 13 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New version RC:

  arc.arc

 

Changes:

    * -m#p/-max compression modes: modified to use precomp for all files

    * Added -m#s/-maxs modes that uses precomp:slow instead of precomp

    * CRC32: made 5x faster (0.4 -> 2 GB/s) by using 7zip code!

    * SFX/Instaler: extract files from xxx.arc if there is no archive at the end of xxx.exe

    * Unarc/sfx: optimized memory/resources allocation

    * Unarc.exe/arc.sfx: prints "All OK" on successful command execution

    * Unarc/sfx: fixed bug: it was possible to use options after "--"

    * Unarc: updated readme.txt to describe all files in the subproject

 

Notes:

 - Faster CRC subroutines makes a big difference for fastest compression modes. For example, compression/test/extraction times for HFCB:

       -mex1: 70/15/85 (old) -> 56/13/85 (new)

       -m1: 70/41/81 -> 70/34/81

 

 - And, finally, -max use precomp for all files - just as you want. Plus -maxs mode use precomp:slow for even slower compression

 

 

Also: (December 15 2009)

 Released SREP 1.0:

  http://freearc.org/download/research/srep10.zip

 

Changes in srep 1.0:

    * -delete option that delete source file after successful (de)compression

    * Checking of -l value

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 RC (December 18 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Last RC version:

  arc.arc

 

Changes:

    * unarc/sfx/dll: added -ap/-ld/-cfg options

    * -m=lzma:1gb now supported, although internally it's converted to the same lzma:959mb

    * Linux version also updated

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 (December 20 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Finally, 0.60 release:

  http://freearc.org/download/0.60/FreeArc-0.60-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/0.60/FreeArc-portable-0.60-win32.zip

  http://freearc.org/download/0.60/FreeArc-console-0.60-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/0.60/FreeArc-0.60-sources.tar.bz2

  http://freearc.org/download/0.60/arc.arc

  http://freearc.org/download/0.60/FreeArc-PowerPack-0.60.exe

 

Change:

    * Fixed bug with entering into encrypted archives, FreeArc should never more hang up on this operation. please check it!

 

Notes:

 - As you can see, release date is Dec 21, so we have 1 day to check released files before i will make an official release for wide public

 - Also, since it's wide public release, it unconditionally overwrites arc.ini and arc.groups files in your installation directory. Please, backup them before installation if you use modified copies

 

Also:

 Added Linux version: http://freearc.org/download/0.60/FreeArc-0.60-linux-i386.tar.bz2

 Updated other files with minor text corrections

 

 

Also: (December 21 2009)

FreeArc4InnoSetup 3.5 from 21-12-2009:

  http://freearc.org/ru/InnoSetup.aspx

 

Changes in FreeArc4InnoSetup 3.5:

    * Support for -ap/-ld/-cfg options in FreeArcExtract()

    * Faster extraction for big amount of wav-files (TTA method)

    * Allowed to transmit NULL as first parameter (callback) in FreeArcExtract()

    * Fixed bug: were processed options after '--'

 

 

FreeArc 0.60 (December 21 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 Release:

  http://freearc.org/download/0.60/FreeArc-0.60-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/0.60/FreeArc-portable-0.60-win32.zip

  http://freearc.org/download/0.60/FreeArc-console-0.60-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/0.60/FreeArc-0.60-sources.tar.bz2

  http://freearc.org/download/0.60/arc.arc

  http://freearc.org/download/0.60/FreeArc-PowerPack-0.60.exe

 

Notes:

 - I’ve made official release: http://freearc.org/News.aspx#0.60

 - Please, spread this information on {in?}other forums. And redownload release files – I’ve fixed minor bugs there

 

 

Also: (December 23 2009)

 - MFC was updated: "23-December-2009 :   Added FreeArc 0.60, WinRAR 3.91, NanoZip 0.07a, UPX 3.04, BCM 0.10, Packet 0.91b, CSC 3.1 and RINGS 1.6. FreeArc keeps improving as version 0.60 shows improved compression speed (and in some cases even improved compression ratio) compared to the 0.51 version. FreeArc again sets a new performance record in the efficiency ranking!. WinRAR also made a big jump in efficiency as compression speed was greatly improved by adding better multi-core support (introduced in WinRAR 3.90). It now takes a clear 3th place in efficiency ranking, behind FreeARC and NanoZIP."

 

 - FreeArc efficiency was improved by 3-10% in new release, mainly due to faster lzma and i/o

 

Also:

 - MFC was updated once again: now FA 0.60 shows 10-30% better efficiency compared to 0.51. The most dramatic change is -m2 decompression speed that became almost 2x faster. -m3 decompression is 1.5x faster

 

 - Seems that Werner either used RAM disk for last test or at least a small disk partition as I did in HFCB

 

 

FreeArc 0.61 alpha (December 26 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New alpha version:

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-0.61-alpha-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-portable-0.61-alpha-win32.zip

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/arc.arc

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-console-0.61-alpha-win32.exe

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-0.61-alpha-sources.tar.bz2

  http://freearc.org/download/testing/FreeArc-PowerPack-0.60RC.exe

 

Changes:

    * Fixed problem: installer not always registering Explorer integration

    * Changed compiler/gtk2hs versions, so new funny bugs may arrive

    * Changed write caching scheme - new one is a bit slower, but no more creates 30 additional threads

 

 

FreeArc 0.61 alpha (December 29 2009)

---------------------

Status:

 New version:

  arc.arc

 

Changes:
    * Support for listing/browsing zip/rar/7z/... archives (requires 7z.dll)
    * ArcShellExt.dll: fixed 32-bit version, now it should work on all systems
    * Italian translation: actualized by bovirus
    * -di+! now enables printing of filetype detection info (and -di+$ doesn't)
    * Readme.txt: actualized compilation instructions

Note:
 - Known problems: bz2/gz and encrypted archives doesn't supported, ArcInfo displays zeroes

 

 

FreeArc 0.61 alpha (January 9 2010)

---------------------

Status:

 New version:

  arc.arc

 

Changes:
    * 7z.dll: archive extraction/testing including e/x/t commands, -dp (outpath), filtering based on file name/size/time/attributes

    * 7z.dll: encrypted archives support

    * 7z.dll: ArcInfo: total bytes, compressed bytes, compressed directory size, archive comment, sfx size

    * 7z.dll: RHSA file attributes in archive listing

    * ArcShellExt: show Extraction menu for rar/zip/... files

    * ArcShellExt: fixed bug resulting in that Join... and Modify... menu items were never shown

    * ArcInfo: directory size/compressed info, with localization

 

Notes:

 - I have to say that last apha technically contains almost everything we will see in 0.65 release. Things that remained:

    * gz/bz2 support

    * bugfixing

    * improved error handling in calls to 7z.dll (now they're almost not existent)

    * fixing usability problems with -mex modes and turning them into new -m1..4

 

 - My plans now is to release 0.65 at the end of January, and 0.70 (with 7z.dll-based compression) at the end of February

 

 

FreeArc 0.61 alpha (January 26 2010)

---------------------

Status:

 New version:

  arc.arc

 

Changes:
    * Linux version now handles zip/rar/7z/... archives

    * ArcInfo: added "Archive type" (FreeArc/7z/rar/zip/...)

    * "lt" command: added data from ArcInfo dialog

    * Linux: exchanged OK and Cancel buttons as recommended by HIG

    * Windows: use '\' as path separator instead of unix-styled '/'

    * 7z.dll: close archive files after operation

    * Compression: fixed NO_MEMORY error when compressing with lzma:bt4:128m and "There are 710 free Mbytes of paging file"

    * PHYS-MEMORY size reported to site may be >4gb

 

 

FreeArc 0.61 alpha (February 2 2010)

---------------------

Status:

 New version:

  arc.arc

 

Changes:

    * Fixed: processing directories and files inside directories was broken in latest alpha

    * Fixed: when filetime is in 2038+ year, archive extraction was failing. Now it sets filetime to 2038-01-19, last day of Unix epoch

    * arc.groups: removed .bsa from compressed files list (these days it's game format, not BS Archiver) 

    * Unix console version: disabled progress indicator in console title

    * multi-threading support: switched to using LZMA2 code, now i finally can delete LZMA 4.x code from FreeArc sources

    * Unix: by default allow to allocate up to 2gb of memory

 

 

FreeArc 0.61 alpha (February 16 2010)

---------------------

Status:

 New version:

  arc.arc

 

Changes:

   * GUI: running files directly from archive!!! File isn't runned if extraction operation was failed or canceled

    * Settings: option "Unpack whole archive when running:"

    * Settings: option "Show "Test archive" dialog"

    * Extraction: option "Open output directory in Explorer"

    * GUI: now it can delete directories from disk, recursively

    * Fixed: file was remaining locked when FreeArc failed to open it as archive

    * LZMA1: finally removed from sources

 

 

FreeArc 0.61 alpha (February 19 2010)

---------------------

Status:

 New version:

  arc.arc

 

Changes:

    * .gz/.bz2 support

    * GUI: don't show Detach button when Add/Extract dialog opens from Explorer context menu

    * GUI: fixed execution of Detach button with directories

    * Proper error message on attempt to modify 7z.dll-supported archive

 

 

FreeArc 0.61 alpha (March 22 2010)

---------------------

Status:

 New version:

  arc.arc

 

Changes:

    * Added dispack filter for executable files (also available in unarc/sfx/unarc.dll)

    * Fixed bug in -mex2 mode (i.e. 4x4:tor) detected on "Oblivion - Sounds.bsa"

    * -ioff/--shutdown option for powering off computer after completion of operation

    * GUI: shutdown option in Add/Extract dialogs

    * GUI: storing expanded status of options block inside Progress window

    * GUI: disable unused buttons in Progress window after operation was finished

 

Notes:

 - The most exciting thing is new dispack filter. I hope that compression will be increased in next versions by improving x86 code detection algorithm. Please note that dispack compression format will probably be changed too, so don't expect that archives made by this version can be extracted by future ones.

 - Dispack now is highly experimental feature so it not used by default and cannot be used for a long time

 

 

FreeArc 0.61 alpha (April 13 2010)

---------------------

Status:

 New version:

  arc.arc

 

Main change is that m/t compression is now used by default:

    * -m1..-m4 compression methods are equal to -mex1..4 if you run FreeArc on multicore cpu

 

This change required to fix usability quirks reported by users, so now:

    * threads performing compression/decompression/encryption tasks are assigned lower priority so computer no more hangs when you run compression

    * progress indicator was made smoother, especially for m/t compression

    * compression settings in 4x4 are automatically reduced to obey memory limit settings

    * 4x4's :t and :i params are no more saved in archive

 

Also, syntax for describing compression method in -m option/arc.ini/built-in was extended with "|" syntax:

    * -m=tor|lzma|lzma:max means "use tor for 1-core cpu, lzma for 2 cores, lzma:max for 3+ cores

    * -m=tor|||lzma means tor for 1-3 cores, lzma for 4+ cores (i.e. repeated strings may be omitted)

    * -m=rep+(tor|lzma) means rep+tor for 1 core, rep+lzma for 2+ cores (i.e. use parens to alter only part of line depending on number of cores)

    * -m=(|x)tor mean tor for 1 core, xtor for 2+ cores (i.e. it's just text replacement so you can do it on any part of line)

    * use "arc --print-config" to see how new syntax used to define -m1..-m4 methods

    * don't forget to use quotes around options containing "|" in cmdline!  For example:   arc a archive "-m=lzma:(fast|normal)"

 

Dispack:

    * option :b allows to control block size: dispack:b8m

    * default block size is 64mb

    * memory usage: compression - 3.25*blocksize, decompression - 2.25*blocksize,

 

Other changes:

    * zip/rar/7z/... archives now opens in FreeArc when double-clicked in Explorer

    * disabled "New archive" Explorer command since we don't yet support Drag&Drop

    * when GUI operation finished, uiMessage==" " so that this label no more shrinked

    * fixed bug: Tornado compression allocated 2.5*dict memory, now it's 1.5*dict

    * new Ukrainian translation by ruduk

 

Notes:

 - Finally, FreeArc provides 100% cpu utilization in fast modes (-m1..4). If you need maximum m/t compression (like 7zip -mx9 -m=lzma2), -mex5..9 should be used, that are bit worser than -m5..9.

 - One drawback of new scheme is that the same compression mode (say, -m4) on m/t cpu becomes much faster but provides even less compression that on single-core - this looks rather awkward, so i may need to rebalance entire methods line

 

 

FreeArc 0.61 alpha (April 20 2010)

---------------------

Status:

 New version:

  arc.arc

 

Changes:

    * Settings: separate checkbox for associating FreeArc with zip/rar/... archives

    * Compression: stronger methods for -mex3t/-mex4t

    * GUI: show full current directory name in window title when outside of archive

    * fixed: don't use more memory than set in -lc (reported by Sami)

    * fixed: bug on computers with memory > 4gb (it was treated as -lc- option)

    * fixed: arc l archive_with_rr

    * i18n: two more strings

 

 

FreeArc 0.61 alpha (May 4 2010)

---------------------

Status:

 New version:

  arc.arc

 

Changes:

    * Installer: "associate with other archives" checkbox

    * GUI: open .tar.gz-like archives in one step

    * GUI: save passwords entered due the session (well, only passwords used to open archive are currently saved)

    * GUI: show description of operation in window title ("Extracting archive xxx" and so on)

    * 7z.dll: remove files extracted with error, unless -kb is specified

    * Console: cw command: now supports zip/arj/... comments

    * GUI: updated speeds on Compression tab according to new m/t methods

    * GUI: 7z.dll: show "Skipping ..." on files being skipped

    * GUI: fixed: update Totals label after jumping to another archive/directory

    * mmdet: fixed bug in entropy calculation

 

 

FreeArc 0.61 alpha (May 6 2010)

---------------------

Status:

 New version:

  arc.arc

 

Changes:

    * Compression: restored faster methods for -mex3t/-mex4t

    * 7z.dll: fixed bug with passing password longer than one char

    * GUI: also open .cpio.* in one step

    * GUI: select language on the first run

    * Settings: added "Open .tar.gz-like archives in single step"

    * Unarc: overwrite read-only/system files

    * GUI: fixed: Explorer RCM -> open dialog -> Cancel lead to error message

 

Note:

 - If you maintain any language file, please update it now - i will not add new translation items before 0.65 releases. There are only 18 new strings since 0.60 so it should be not much work.

 

 

FreeArc 0.61 alpha (May 10 2010)

---------------------

Status:

 New version:

  arc.arc

 

Changes:

    * GUI: don't reask passwords when running file from archive with encrypted directory

    * Fixed several small bugs

    * Updated 7 translations

 

Note:

 - I hope that it will be the last alpha before 0.65. Things to be done:

    * Unix support

    * Translations: Ukrainian, Italian, Arabic, Portuguese_Brazil, Spanish, French