View source for FreeArc

{{Short description|Free and open source file archiver}}
{{Infobox software
| name = freearc
| screenshot = 
| caption = 
| developer = Bulat Ziganshin
| discontinued = yes
| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|preferred|references|edit|Q3495962|P348|P548=Q2804309}}
| latest release date = {{wikidata|qualifier|preferred|single|Q3495962|P348|P548=Q2804309|P577}}
| latest preview version = {{wikidata|property|preferred|references|edit|Q3495962|P348|P548=Q51930650}}
| latest preview date = {{wikidata|qualifier|preferred|single|Q3495962|P348|P548=Q51930650|P577}}
| programming language = [[Haskell (programming language)|Haskell]], [[C++]], [[C (programming language)|C]]
| operating_system = [[Microsoft Windows]], [[Linux]]
| platform = [[IA-32]]
| genre = [[File archiver]]
| license = [[GNU General Public License|GPL-2.0-only]]<ref>{{cite web|title=FreeArc news|url=http://freearc.org/News.aspx#0.60|date=2009-12-21|quote=''Finally, we have added License file clearly stating that FreeArc is free for any usage.''|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161122120044/http://freearc.org/News.aspx#0.60|archive-date=2016-11-22}}</ref><ref name="freearc-license">{{cite web|url=https://sourceforge.net/projects/freearc/|title=FreeArc : Develop|access-date=2009-08-17|quote=license: GPL}}</ref>
| website = {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161118232624/http://freearc.org/ |date=18 November, 2016 |title=freearc.org }}
}}
'''FreeArc''' is a [[free and open-source]] high-performance [[file archiver]] developed by Bulat Ziganshin. The project is presumably discontinued, since no information has been released by the developers since 2016 and the official website is down.

A "FreeArc Next" version is under development, with version FA 0.11 released in October 2016.<ref name=next>{{Cite web|url=https://encode.su/threads/2621-FreeArc-Next|title=FreeArc 'Next|website=encode.su|access-date=2020-10-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200415073536/https://encode.su/threads/2621-FreeArc-Next|archive-date=2020-04-15|url-status=live}}</ref> The "Next" version supports 32- and 64-bit Windows and Linux and includes [[Zstandard]] support.<ref>{{Cite web |title=FA 0.11 release notes |url=https://github.com/Bulat-Ziganshin/FA/wiki/FA-0.11-release-notes |access-date=2024-09-18 |website=GitHub |language=en}}</ref>

==Algorithms==
FreeArc uses [[LZMA]], [[prediction by partial matching]], TrueAudio, Tornado and [[GRzip]]<ref>{{cite web |title=grzip - Freecode |url=http://freshmeat.sourceforge.net/projects/grzip/ |website=sourceforge.net |access-date=9 July 2021}}</ref> algorithms with automatic switching by file type. Additionally, it uses filters to further improve compression, including REP (finds repetitions at separations up to 1gb), DICT (dictionary replacements for text), DELTA (improves compression of tables in binary data), BCJ (executables preproccesor) and LZP (removes repetitions in text).<ref name=tomshardware/>

==Benchmarks==

===Archive size===
In 2010 [[Tom's Hardware]] benchmarks comparing it to the other popular archivers, FreeArc narrowly outperformed [[WinZip]], [[7-Zip]], and [[WinRAR]] in its "best compression" mode. In the "default compression" tests, it lost to 7-Zip's [[LZMA2]], but still compressed better than WinRAR and WinZip.<ref name=tom2>{{cite web|url=http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/archive-zip-compression,2572-6.html|title=Proprietary Formats: Compression Rate, Size, And Duration - Four Compression And Archiving Solutions Compared|date=10 March 2010|access-date=25 June 2016}}</ref>

===Speed===
In the same Tom's Hardware tests, FreeArc was outpaced at default settings by 7zip's LZMA2 default compression, and also by WinRAR, even at its best compression settings. FreeArc's compression at its best settings was slower than both 7zip and WinRAR, but still came ahead of WinZip.<ref name=tom2/>

===Efficiency===
In a metric devised by Werner Bergmans of [[Maximum Compression Benchmark]], FreeArc compression is more efficient than programs for classic formats like [[Compress|.Z]] ([[Lempel-Ziv-Welch|LZW]]), [[ZIP (file format)|.zip]] ([[DEFLATE|Deflate]]), [[gzip|.gz]] or [[bzip2]]. (The scoring formula used in this non-public test,

<math display="block">\text{score}_X = \text{time}_X \times 2^{10\cdot\left(\frac{\text{size}_X}{\text{size}_{\text{TOP}}} - 1\right)}</math>

multiplies the sum of compression and decompression times by a factor that exponentially grades the ratio of archive sizes achieved by the program under test relative to the best known archive size for that data set.) As of November 2010, FreeArc is the top program in this benchmark, followed by NanoZip, [[block-sorting compressor|bsc]] and WinRAR. It works faster than WinRAR and 7zip.<ref name="golem">{{cite web|url=http://www.golem.de/0912/72026.html|title=FreeArc - Kompressionsprogramm mit eigenem Format|language=de}}, golem.de</ref>

==Features==
{{Infobox file format
| name          = freearc
| extension     = <code>.arc</code>
| mime          = <code>application/x-freearc</code>
| owner         = Bulat Ziganshin
| genre         = [[Data compression]]
}}
Like [[RAR (file format)|RAR]] and [[ZIP (file format)|ZIP]] it is an archiver, not just a data compressor like [[gzip]] or [[bzip2]]. Initially it supported only its own archive format, normally identified by the <code>.arc</code> file name extension, incompatible with others;<ref name=tomshardware/> there is no relationship with other [[.arc]] formats. More recently,{{When|date=June 2016}} decompression support for other archive types was added, including zip, rar, and [[7z]]. FreeArc has both a command line interface and a [[GUI]].<ref name=golem/> Other features include:

* [[Solid compression]] with "smart updates" which avoid recompression when possible
* [[Advanced Encryption Standard|AES]]/[[Blowfish (cipher)|Blowfish]]/[[Twofish]]/[[Serpent (cipher)|Serpent]] encryption,<ref name="tomshardware">Patrick Schmid, Achim Roos, (March 10, 2010) ''[http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/archive-zip-compression,2572-3.html 7-Zip 9.1 Beta And FreeArc 0.60]'', [[Tom's Hardware]]</ref> including chaining of encryption algorithms
* FAR and Total Commander plug-ins
* Ability to create [[self-extracting archive]]s and installers
* Archive protection and recovery layer using [[Reed–Solomon error correction]] with user-defined size (for example, recovery over Internet being 0.1%, while default is autosize 1-4%).

==Supported platforms==
Windows [[binary file|binaries]] are available from the developer. There is no [[64-bit]] variant of version 0.666,<ref>{{cite web|title=FreeArc Download page|url=http://freearc.org/Download-Alpha.aspx|access-date=2012-01-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118015522/http://freearc.org/Download-Alpha.aspx|archive-date=2012-01-18|url-status=dead}}</ref> but FA 0.11 supported both 32- and 64-bit systems.<ref name=next/>

==FreeArc Next==
In October 2016 the first public release of FreeArc Next was released.<ref name=next/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://github.com/Bulat-Ziganshin/FA/wiki|title=Bulat-Ziganshin/FA|website=GitHub|access-date=2016-10-15}}</ref> It is currently available only as a [[Command-line interface|CLI application]] for 32 and 64 bit Windows and Linux platforms. New features include:
* Full-archive deduplication similar to [[ZPAQ]]
* Support for the [[Zstandard]] compression algorithm implemented by Facebook<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://github.com/facebook/zstd|title=facebook/zstd|website=GitHub|access-date=2016-10-15}}</ref>
* [[Lua (programming language)|Lua]] programming for the INI file
* Better files prefetching which increases compression speeds

==See also==
{{Portal|Free and open-source software}}
* [[List of archive formats]]
* [[List of file archivers]]
* [[Comparison of file archivers]]
* [[List of Unix commands]]
* [[rzip]]
* [[lzma]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170217014803/http://freearc.org/ |date=February 17, 2017 |title=freearc.org }}
* {{Sourceforge|freearc}} (abandoned)
* [https://github.com/mrkaban/FreeArc-0.67/ Binary files and source code of version 0.67]

{{Archive formats}}
{{Compression Software Implementations}}
{{FLOSS}}

[[Category:Lossless compression algorithms]]
[[Category:Free data compression software]]
[[Category:Archive formats]]
[[Category:Unix archivers and compression-related utilities]]
[[Category:Cross-platform software]]
[[Category:Year of introduction missing]]
[[Category:File archivers]]