# The &ark; Handbook

&Matt.Johnston; &Matt.Johnston.mail;
2000
&Matt.Johnston;
2004
Henrique Pinto
&FDLNotice;
2009-01-24
2.12

&ark; is an archive manager for &kde;.

KDE
gzip
gunzip
tar
archive
zip
compression
lha
kdeutils
ark

## Introduction

&ark; is a program for managing various archive formats within the &kde; environment. Archives can be viewed, extracted, created and modified from within &ark;. The program can handle various formats such as `tar`, `gzip`, `bzip2`, `zip`, `rar` and `lha` (if appropriate command-line programs are installed).

## Using &ark;

### Opening Archives

To open an archive in &ark;, choose Open... from the File menu. You can also open archive files by dragging and dropping from &konqueror; or &dolphin;. Archive files should be associated with &ark;, so you can also right click a file in &konqueror; or &dolphin; and select Open with &ark; to open it or select an extract action for this file.

### Working with Files

Once an archive has been opened, you can perform various operations on the files inside the archive. By selecting a file and using the Action menu, you can choose what you want to do:

- Add File... will add files from your disk to the archive.

- Add Folder... will add folders from your disk to the archive.

- Delete will remove the currently selected file(s) from the archive.

- Extract... will extract the file to a location you specify on disk.

- Preview will open the file in the associated viewer.

### Extracting Archives

Once an archive has been opened in &ark;, it can be extracted. To quick extract files from an archive, you can select Extract... from the Action menu. This opens a submenu with previously accessed folders, and you can select to quick extract into any of them. Clicking on the check mark at the right side of the Extract button in the toolbar performes the same action.

To open the Extract dialog click the Extract button in the toolbar or use the shortcut &Ctrl; E.

This dialog allows you to select where you will extract files to. The default location is the folder the archive is in.

You can specify to extract the files into a subfolder. The default name of this subfolder is the first part of the archive name, but you can edit it to your needs. If you want to preserve paths when extracting, select this option. You may also choose to open the destination folder in &konqueror; or &dolphin; once the extraction is complete.

If a file in the archive list is highlighted, you can also select which files to extract:

- Selected files only extracts only the files which have been selected.

- All files extracts the entire contents of the archive.

### Creating Archives and Adding Files

To create a new archive in &ark;, choose New from the File menu.

You can then type the name of the archive, with the appropriate extension (`tar.gz`, `zip`, `bz2` &etc;) or select a supported format in the Filter combo box and check the Automatically select filename extension option. To add files to the archive, choose Add File... from the Action menu. If you want to add an entire folder to an archive, choose Add Folder... from the Action menu.

An alternative way to add files to the archive is to drag a file from &konqueror;, &dolphin; or the desktop into the main &ark; window, and it will be added to the current archive.

## Command Reference

### The File Menu

&Ctrl;N File New

  Creates a new archive.

&Ctrl;O File Open...

  Opens an archive.

File Open Recent

  Shows a list of recent archives to choose from.

&Ctrl; Q File Quit

  Closes &ark;.

### The Action Menu

Action Add File...

  Shows the Add Files dialog, where you can select files. Hold down &Ctrl; and click to select multiple files.

Action Add Folder...

  Shows the Add Folder dialog. Just select a folder and click the OK button.

Action Delete

  Removes the currently selected files from the archive.

&Ctrl;E Action Extract... Quick extract to...

  This opens a submenu with previously accessed folders, and you can select to quick extract into any of them.

Action Preview

  Opens the currently selected file in the associated viewer program.

### The Settings Menu

Settings Show Statusbar

  Toggles whether the status bar is displayed.

Settings Configure Shortcuts...

  Displays the Configure Shortcuts dialog box. This lets you choose shortcut keys for various menu items. To change a shortcut, select an action from the list, and then choose which keystroke to use. Clicking on the right Key button lets you choose which specific key to use. Just press the new key.

Settings Configure Toolbars...

  Displays a &kde; standard dialog where you can configure the toolbar icons.

### The Help Menu

&help.menu.documentation;

## Credits and License

&ark; is Copyright © 1997-2008, The Various &ark; Developers

### Authors:

- Helio Chissini de Castro helio@conectiva.com.br

- Georg Robbers Georg.Robbers@urz.uni-hd.de

- Henrique Pinto henrique.pinto@kdemail.net

- Roberto Selbach Teixeira maragato@kde.org

- Robert Palmbos palm9744@kettering.edu

- Francois-Xavier Duranceau duranceau@kde.org

- Corel Corporation (author: Emily Ezust) emilye@corel.com

Documentation Copyright © 2000 &Matt.Johnston; &Matt.Johnston.mail;

Documentation updated for &kde; 3.3 by Henrique Pinto henrique.pinto@kdemail.net.

&underFDL; &underGPL;

## Installation

### How to obtain &ark;

&install.intro.documentation;

### Requirements

In order to successfully use &ark;, you need &kde; 4.1. &GNU; `tar` and a recent `gzip` are also needed if you want &ark; to handle tar archives. To handle other file formats, you need the appropriate command line programs, such as `zip`, `unzip`, `ar`, `rar` and `lha`.

### Compilation and Installation

&install.compile.documentation;

&documentation.index;