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PeaZip
free archiver FAQ
FAQ 
This section is
intended to help users to quickly find answers, troubleshooting and
usage and tips & tricks
about PeaZip; for a more detailed discussion of some topics other
specific
pages of this site may be better suited:
- Download
- PeaZip
- FAQ - this
section.
- Help - online
help manuals for PeaZip and Pea.
You may also consider checking for answers on PeaZip forum  , tracker and wiki .
Tips in bold links to a specific answer page for the topic.
General
questions
and tips:
PeaZip on
Windows:
PeaZip on Linux:
Development
& feedback:
 
Definition: archive layout,
job definition
and job log
PeaZip aims to speed up archiving operation introducing some useful
tools.
- "Archive layout" is a list of object to be
archived. When creating a new archive, files and folders can be added
to the layout and in any moment the layout can be saved (and edited as
a text file); in the meantime in any moment a saved layout can be added
to the current archive's layout and PeaZip will take care to verify if
entries are accessible or not. That should make easier to define,
merge, handle, maintain and edit with external tools the lists of
object to be archived (i.e., for backup purpouse).
- Most of the things possible to do with PeaZip
can be exported as a command line in a text file, using save job
definition buttons or
button (in job's window). Advanced users can
use those
saved commands to speed up building scripts, or for learning purpose
about the underlying executables.
- PeaZip allows to inspect and, if needed, to
save the outcome of a job ("Job log")
anytime it's important i.e. to document a backup operation, or to keep
track of an error etc...
Definition:
console and graphic binaries user interface
PeaZip acts as a frontend
for various applications; in Tools > Settings it is possible to set
how those applications are
presented to the users (binarie user interface) chosing between 3
alternative modes:
- Console mode launch applications with their native
console interface, allowing the user to spare resources and to see the
native text-based progress indicator for each application, which
generally is more reliable and detailed than the graphical one.
- Graphic mode: wraps the job in a graphical
presentation making easier to read and save job
log and job definition, to change underlying process priority, to pause
or stop the job and to open the output path in a
click. Optionally at job completition the window can auto close itself
or shut down the system. This is the default mode for most job types.
- Graphic + console mode: allows to get the best of the
two modes, with a GUI to control the job and a console window to have a
real-time log of ongoing activity.
Hint: is
PeaZip faster/slower than... does it compress better than... ?
Speaking of PeaZip GUI, it's quite fast for some
aspects (i.e. doesn't need to load system's icons for files, the
archive browsing can be turned off making almost instantaneous to open
an archive) and quite slow for other (being a frontend, each time an
archive is queried interprocess communication is involved; expecially
if the program / the input path / the output path is on a slow network
or unit this may bring to a noticeable slowdown).
But most of the time is usually spent on archiving/extracting
operations; in this case PeaZip is as fast as the invoked application
(7z, which is command line 7-Zip
executable, Paq,
Pea, UPX etc...), wich
performance is mainly bound to the algorithm and the
compression level involved, being the underlying
executables good and efficient implementations.
PeaZip features extremely fast operations, as
tar/untar, split/merge files, create archives with "store" compression
level, quite fast operations (i.e. Deflate based algorithms, like in gzip compression),
slow/quite slow operations (when bzip2,
LZMA, PPMd, unrar, unace are
involved), up to very slow operations when PAQ at highest compression
levels are used.
A wide range of performances and compression levels can be attained
using PeaZip, the point is in chosing the right balance between the two
things.
Hint: what
is the
"portable" version?
PeaZip is a
natively portable and autocontained program, with all needed
configuration and resources in PeaZip's directory and subdirectories.
Standalone
versions are packages containing the program; once extracted, the
program can run from any
path (from the network, on a removable media like and USB stick etc)
and doesn't require
installation.
The downside is that no filetypes will be associated
to the program and no entry will be created in "SendTo", context or
service menus, however
you can create shortcuts or .desktop files in Linux with
a fixed first parameter (as explained in
program's documentation) to access to
all internal functions.
Hint: where
does compressed and extracted files go?
It is possible to deeply customize
compression and extraction behaviour. The application can be set to
always ask the user for the path for extraction and compression, or to
use a default path which can be separately defined for compression and
extraction, or also to use the path of the archive which is being
extracted (or of the first file which is being archived).
Moreover from the extraction and compression interfaces it's possible
to override this behaviour for the current PeaZip's session, setting a
different path (or the need of asking the path each time); from the
archive browser it's also possible to access in any moment the "Extract
to..." entries in context menu to explicitely choose the extraction
directory for all archive or just displayed or selected objects.
UPX is the only exception from that mechanism since it always compress
the input executable file in place.
Hint: where
is the documentation?
Help page
contains most up to date help files and available translations; if you
need to access the
documentation offline or if you want to keep the documentation for an
older PeaZip's release you can download anyone of the *.doc.zip package
from all
downloads
page.
How to add/remove files to
existing
archives?
From archive browser:
open the desired
archive with PeaZip and then use "Add file", "Add folder", "Delete
selected object(s)" context menu entries (or buttons), or drag items in
the archive; Ctrl+BackSpace delete selected objects from archive.
From archive layout creation interface:
in "Options" tab, Function
drop down menu
(if available for the archive's format) select Add or Update mode and
then select the archive to be updated as output destination, either
from in I/O panel or from the output name dialog.
Some archives cannot be updated because of solid mode used or because
the archive type is supported only for extraction.
How to change
application's settings?
From Tools > Settings
in main
menu you can deeply
customize the applications
behaviour; see program's documentation
for more detailed description of available options, like turning on/off
messages, choosing a default archive format, always asking for
extraction path etc...
Hint: on the top
right corner of default options panel there is a reset button which
allows to restore default settings, except for localization (when it
will be available), theming and window size and position.
Settings are saved in \res\conf.txt
file in the application's folder.
Deleting this file will clear any
saved option (including localization, theming, window state) and force
PeaZip to rebuild a configuration file
containing hardcoded defaults; conversely, you can save backup copies
of conf.txt to keep desired settings.
The configuration file is used both for
Linux and Windows version so it
doesn't contain system specific options, like file associations
and
quick links to application's function; in Windows version those options
can be resetted running the setup again
anytime it's needed; this will
reset conf.txt file too.
How to change
application's language?
From Tools > Settings > Localizations you can select the
application's language.
PeaZip will start displaying files in peazipfolder\res\lang\ path, but
language files can be stored in any location.
You can download additional localizations from "PeaZip resources" group
on SourceForge, and manually copy them in peazipfolder\res\lang\ path.
New translations are made available for users as soon as they are
provided, and then will be packaged with future releases of the program
for ease of use.
How to open output folder
after
the job completes? After the job has
finished you can open the output path
clicking on the button "Open output path" in the job's window,
or, in PeaZip's main window, on the "Open output path" icon
in output path's bar (below the toolbar).
How to save
compression settings?
PeaZip remembers
last used compression levels and compression algorithm for each format;
custom options
(where applicable), like passes, dictionary size etc are
remembered only for the current session or until the compression format
is changed.
All those settings can be reset to default using the reset button on
"Options" panel.
How to
speed up definition of archiving/backup jobs?
PeaZip introduces two
concepts to improve the way archiving-related
jobs are handled: archive layouts and exporting jobs to command line.
Archive's layout
composition interface allows to save current files/folders/filters list
as layout. Next times, saved layouts can be imported, merged and edited in archive's layout composer interface,
saving the time of defining again the selection of objects to be saved.
Once the archiving (and extraction) jobs are defined, it is possible to
export current job to
command line (Save job button in Options tab); in this way it is
possible to save job definition for future use, or to inspect the
underlying commands for learning purpouse, or for fine-tuning the
job bejond the GUI's capabilities.
How to stop
and undo
jobs?
You can use
"Stop" button in the graphic wrapper to stop the
underlying job's process; partial outcome of the job will not be
automatically deleted and will remain available for inspection, as well
the job log.
Troubleshooting:
why PeaZip may not browse
the content of some archives?
In some cases PeaZip may not able to browse
archive's
content:
- The archive header may be encrypted and it's
not possible to read it before providing the right password; if you
know it type the password in the edit field near the locker icon
 and then click on
the locker to unlock the archive.
Hint: if you have to work on different archives with the same password
you will not need to re-enter it since it will be kept until you change
it or close PeaZip. If you open different instances of PeaZip each will
start with no password and can keep a different password.
- Few archivers will
not
create entries with the names of directories, leaving missing
entries
in the archive's
root (or leaving it empty). PeaZip will then have no item to show when
browsing
archive's root, but still can correctly extract, list and test the
archive, including the "hidden" content, and still can show archive's
content in flat mode (clicking on
the expand
 icon) or using
filters. However, most archivers will either follow the common
convention of saving the name of the directory in the root path of the
archive, creating archives which doesn't raise this problem in
PeaZip's archive browser. From version 2.1 PeaZip auto-switches to flat
view mode if succeds in detecting this problem.
- If none of the aforementioned solutions work,
the archive may just unfortunately be corrupted and you will need to
re-download it or restore it from a backup copy.
Troubleshooting: why the
application seem not responding?
PeaZip
may be performing lengthy operations which needs to wait completition;
i.e. PeaZip may be querying the archive for browsing (expecially when
flat mode is used on archives containing many files) or adding /
removing files from archives (needed time depends on the size of the
objects and compression options), or querying the system to add files
and folders number to archive layout.
Any time a potentially lengthy operation is requested the cursor is
changed to horglass and, when possible, an animation is performed to
inform the user that the operation is running and is needing some time
to be completed.
Troubleshooting: why the
progress bar has reached the max and the job is
still running?
The progress bar when job is running in graphic mode is not very
accurate; if you want to have a real time
report of the job's progress the native console
mode is still the most detailed and accurate.
In Tools > Settings you can set PeaZip to display both the GUI and
the console window if you want to have both a graphical interface to
control the job and a detailed, real time report on ongoing activities
in the console window.
Can
I find
PeaZip localized / Does PeaZip supports UTF-8 filenames?
UTF-8 support was added
with 2.2 release. It helps to correctly handling filenames with
extended characters and allows localization of the user inteface
text.
You can mail
me localized language file to be included in future updates, see
"Translations" chapter in documentation
(or ask on the forum)
if you are willing to contribute your translation.
Drag and drop is
supported. You can drag and
drop objects from the system to the application's icon and in the
application's forms (main, archive layout creation, archive browser).
From 2.1 version, in Windows, PeaZip can drag and drop objects from the
program's forms to the
system, through a custom drag&drop function. It will not show
standard Windows drag and drop icons and can drop items to
(file)Explorer windows or desktop.
The advantage of this custom function is that it doesn't need to copy
files to system's temporary path on drag&drop operations, speeding
up a lot the operation if big files are involved and don't risking to
lowen the security of the operation if the system's temp folder has
security policies different from the ones of the intended output
destination.
PeaZip is jet not integrated with Windows drag and drop's context menu
handler (but it is integrated with rightclick's context menu).
Can
I
change file associations after installation?
At present, file association in Windows are handled
only from the installer: you can run it each time you want to customize
the association for each supported type.
Unistalling PeaZip before running again the
setup of the same version
is not needed, however it's a good idea (but not mandatory) to
unistall previous versions of PeaZip before running the setup of a
newer version.
How
can I
use PeaZip form Explorer?
- You can rightclick on an object or a group of
objects and use the PeaZip's entries in "SendTo" menu to directly send
input object(s) to a specified PeaZip's function.
- You can rightclick on an object or group of
objects and use Context menu entries of PeaZip to launch specified
functions; please be aware of a current limitation of PeaZip
integration with Windows Context menu: a single object can be passed to
a PeaZip instance in that way (a completely different parameter passing
mechanism would be required otherwise, while the one implemented works
fine for using PeaZip from command line, with SendTo shortcuts and even
under non Windows systems). For extracting/testing multiple archives
it's not a problem since each instance of the program works on a
different archive in parallel, and to archive single objects (file or
folder, or even volume) it's fine too, however to add multiple objects
to a single archive the "Add to archive" link in SendTo menu must be
used instead.
- You can drag object(s) on PeaZip's program
icon and the program will try to decide how to handle the object(s)
provided by the user.
- You can doubleclick on files of types
associated with PeaZip to open them.
How
do I
install
PeaZip?
PeaZip is a
standalone, almost
self contained application: you can unpack a
peazip_portable package (.tar.gz) in any path and just click on peazip
binary; see FreeDesktop_integration folder in program's path to know
how to integrate PeaZip with the desktop environment (Gnome, KDE...).
However, installable packages for generic Linux or specific
distributions are available as well; on News
page you can find most up to date package right for your system (RPM,
DEB, TGZ); installable packages automatically integrate PeaZip with the
desktop environment.
To install PeaZip on 64 bit Linux systems you can launch 32 bit
installers omitting architecture check, or use peazip_portable packages
instead. If desired, 32 bit backend applications can be replaced with
respective 64 bit counterpart (if available from the respective
Authors).
PeaZip is a cross platform and cross widgetset application, meaning it
can be compiled for different systems and widgetsets; precompiled
binaries Linux packages are built for GTK2 and GTK1.
The GTK2 package offers modern look and feel and very functional
GTK2 system dialogs; it's recommended for most Linux users, but if you
are experiencing problems with GTK2 version you could try GTK1 version.
Many other widgetsets are supported by Lazarus, the IDE used for
PeaZip's development, inclusing Qt, WindCE, fpGUI and Carbon. If you
want to compile PeaZip from sources see compile
entry on this
page.
How
do I make my system aware of PeaZip functionalities?
PeaZip installable packages authomatically create
application's icon, list PeaZip in available applications and create
some ServiceMenu entries to reach most used program's functions
(archive, open, extract here, extract to new folder), however
FreeDesktop_integration folder (featured both in installable and in
standalone versions)) contains .desktop
files and simple instructions to add PeaZip to start menus and context
menus of desktop environments following the FreeDesktop standards (like
Gnome and KDE).
I
cannot run PeaZip due to unresolved dependencies.
If the system
report missing libraries the first time you are running PeaZip binary,
you can generally find missing libraries on
your installation media or, better, if an Internet
connection is available, you can search them online using your
installation or update manager, or even in a web based .rpm or .deb
repository; generally missing libraries are standard, well known and
widely available gtk/gkd components (the most common is libgdk_pixbuf
library).
PeaZip
GUI
behaves strangely.
Lazarus (the IDE used to develope PeaZip) is constantly improving
support for GTK2, graphic libraries included in most of modern Linux
distribution.
However on some configuration PeaZip (compiled for GTK2) may still
behave
strangely: some text or icons may be displayed not correctly, or out of
place; some GUI objects may not respond to standard events like click
etc...
Unfortunately it would be not feasible to test the the program with all
possible libraries/versions combinations; generally, as said in "How do I
install PeaZip?"
FAQ, if
GTK2 version gives problems you may consider to use the GTK1 version,
if you have GTK1 libraries installed; otherwise you may also consider
to update your GTK1 and GTK2 libraries in the case you are experiencing
problems of this kind with PeaZip GUI.
What are
hardware/software prerequisites?
PeaZip should run on x86-compatible CPU due to some
performance critical sections written in ASM; CPU and, mainly, RAM
requisites are bound top the chosen algorithm and compression level,
ranging to few KB for simpler algorithms (like when storing files
without compression in tar/gz/zip formats) to above than a GB for most
powerful and complex algorithms at highest compression level, like
LZMA, PPMd and PAQ). Needless to say, it is the choice of the
compression algorithm the most important factor in determination of
job's speed, even if usually the most advanced algorithms are also the
ones wich scales better in performances in multicore enviroments.
As for software prerequisites, all needed software invoked
by the frontend is included in PeaZip packages (being available under
suitable licenses, as open source or royalty free) so no custom package
is needed to be installed to make PeaZip work (with the possible
exception of some standard gtk/gdk related libraries needed to run
PeaZip, Gwrap and Pea binaries, wich may miss in some system, but are
well known, trustable and widely available).
If you don't want non open source software in your system, like
unrar.so (which brings specific license restrictions about reverse
engineering) or unace binary (closed source, royalty free), you simply
need to delete them from /res/ path in program's folder.
How
do I
compile
PeaZip?
PeaZip is
developed using Lazarus/FreePascal;
FreePascal is a language similar to Delphi and Pascal (but higly
portable to different target systems); you
will need Lazarus IDE to compile the program's executables.
The program will also need external resources like
graphics and third
parts binaries, so please refer to binaries packages to see what
exactly you need for a full functional binary build of the program;
read also
the help file readme.txt in the source's package for more hints.
You may also consider to contain the size of
executables using
strip/UPX, which are accessible from a graphic frontend in PeaZip
itself (create archive interface, chose UPX as type in archive options).
PeaZip's forum
on
SourceForge is certainly a good starting place where looking and then
asking for help and for general discussion about the program.
If you are accustomed with tracking systems you can
also consider to
submit bugs, requests etc... to proper categories in PeaZip's tracker on
SourceForge.
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