When I am on Windows and extract, I always get the top folder, but then it appears some compressed a folder with that exact name so I end up with two folders. Have to clean that up manually is really bad. I use Windows built in for zip and Winrar. Never even though about this problem before that it could be handled that way. Thanks for the tip!
It’s one of the very few things I miss from Windows - the 7zip shell extension had the same feature, but literally put the autodetected folder name in the menu so you knew what it would be before even clicking. Such a small thing but so significant a UX boost.
Yeah, when I migrated back to Linux this was a baffling omission to me. I used it a lot in Windows and 7zip. Luckily I realized Plasma is awesome and Ark has this feature. Still kind of miss 7zip though.
Funny enough, I discovered this a couple of weeks ago when I extracted a zip file with the top option and I had like 100 files all over my downloads directory. I was so pissed I had to delete them all one by one and make sure that I don’t delete the files that I actually want there. It was so painful. Then looked at the bottom one and it made sense and it was an “aha I fucking love kde” moment.
Doesn’t Ctrl+Z undo the extraction? I may be dreaming, but I remember there was a fast option to delete all the files extracted. Anyway, we already know about autodetection B)
That’s perfectly fair! I always seem to have a 50/50 coin toss of whether there will be a folder inside the archive or not.
I think if things were more consistent for what I end up having, I wouldn’t mind it if archives didn’t have a folder or if they always had a folder, rather than the current state.
I suppose in your case, it would be cool if there were a config option to make this do the reverse, unpack the files within the subdirectory of the archive to your current directory.
no, no - the opposite is the actual problem: you extract in a non-empty folder and there’s no top directory in the archive. Now you have a bunch of files mixed up: the extracted ones and the ones that were there before you did it.
Honestly now I am curious if there is a CLI equivalent. I always end up using tar’s t flag or opening a zip in vim to see if it has a subfolder as my current workaround…
Ahaha yeah, it'd be fine if it was always either way for me, but I personally prefer setting my folder up and then extract the archive into there, so I don't have to rename it or whatever after extracting. So I would rather it have all the files in the top of the archive and not in a folder.
The “autodetect subfolder” option handles both scenarios fine. This is actually what makes it useful! If I remember correctly, when there’s a single file or folder inside, it just extracts, otherwise it makes a folder with the same name as the archive without the extension.
It would be nice if it were at least configurable to set as the default extract option. If I had to take a guess, it’d be that it’s not the default option because the amount of single files before needing a subfolder could vary between different people. Some folks may want only one, and others may be fine if it goes up to say 3. However, I suppose that could also just be a configurable option.
That being said, I’ve at the very least developed the muscle memory to always click that option no matter what. I can’t tell by your comment if you weren’t aware of the feature, but if not then hopefully it can be of use to you moving forward as well!
Absolutely, yep! I curse myself every time I just click “extract” forgetting that other file managers don’t do this, and end up with files all over the place
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