Testers wanted - archiving tool.

I've just finished the first version of my "SusieQ Archiver" ( named after the song by CCR :) ).

The file format is very simple and so is the implementation, so I'm looking for 10 - 20 or so people to test it for me.

A little warning: DO NOT go and archive a huge file (larger than your physical RAM + pagefile, or even close to it if I were you). See, by simple, I meant it reads each file in one lump; it allocates a buffer to store the entire file then writes it into the archive. Bad bad bad if you try to archive a 728MB ISO like I just did.

Reading large files in chunks somehow is on the TODO list right now, along with compression, which I actually already have in there but decided against it for now until I'm sure I've got the actual format at least half stable.

Should be easy to use - just try running it and you'll get a usage message ( this has to be run from the command line ).

It's directory based, so just point it at a directory and watch it archive. Oh, I haven't built in support for directories inside the archive yet (another TODO) so I'm not sure what it'll do (if anything) when you tell it to archive your desktop (for example and if you have folders on your desktop).

Right I'm starting to ramble, so I'll just point you to the .zip download.

Yes, it's a zipped EXE. Sorry, but I don't want to release the source code. I will if I deem this version, well, crappy and want to rewrite it, however.

I've got AVG Antivirus and avast! running all the time plus I scanned it before I uploaded it. Obviously if you still don't want to take the chance, by all means don't.

http://leesblog.thejefffiles.com/sqa.zip

Just tell me here if you're testing it, and send any notes / comments / crash notices to my email address ( [email protected] ).

<offtopic>
Typing that link reminds me I really should update that blog sometime.
</offtopic>

EDIT: I don't know if it's just me, but I clicked the link and it went... weird. Right clicking it and "Save target as..." seems to work though.

Ahluka, what does this have to do with game programming?? :rolleyes:

If I've missed something here, just slap me and send me on my way.

EDIT: Post 500!!!!

*Slaps*

Now get away from me. :p

What do you mean? This has everything to do with game programming. Archiving game data. I don't know about you ( or anyone else ) but I think it's pretty damned important to get your assets in one place.

Ok... next question then... does the world need YAAT? ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ahluka

Archiving game data.

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But nowhere in the original post do you mention that. ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by psychopath

But nowhere in the original post do you mention that. ;)

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That's because I'm assuming everone here can put "Archiver" and "Game Programming" (forum) together and get "Oh, it's for archiving game data".

Come on guys.

aight ill help you with testing

Comment/Suggest: Design Win32 easy to use interface? This dos stuff is killing me.

Updated

Dammit I just realised I didn't change the version number. Meh.

Anyways here's a bug report courtesy of Mario F.

Quote:

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Error:
I Obtain "ERROR: Failed to open output file for sqa.exe" when trying to extract with the following command:

sqa -x test.sqa

Steps to reproduce:
1. - sqa.exe is placed inside the folder I wish to archive.
2. - Archiving is done through sqa -t . -o test.sqa
3. - Decompress with the command described and with sqa.exe still located inside the same folder.

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Well so far the bug stands fixed, after a fashion. It determines the name of the program ( since there's nothing stopping you renaming it I didn't hardcode "sqa.exe" ) and if it catches it during archive creation, it excludes it. Hack-ish but it works.

Same link as before if I uploaded it properly. Try it and see.

mrafcho001: Indeed I will. When the bug reports have stopped and they're all fixed, I'll knock out a dialog.

Quote:

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YAAT

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Please don't tell me someone came up with an acronym for Yet Another Archiving Tool. And the real important question is: Does the world really need another computer game? :)

Keep up the good work ahluka!

Thankies Bob :)

Question: Directory support. Is it really necessary to support directories inside the archive? Well I'm thinking "no", which I guess is right, but it's partially because I'm not sure how to implement them.

I guess I'll take a look at DOOM's WAD code and q2's PAK code and have a fiddle tomorrow - bloody tired right now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BobMcGee123

And the real important question is: Does the world really need another computer game? :)

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*Gasp!* I can't believe you asked that!... Die!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ahluka

Well so far the bug stands fixed, after a fashion. It determines the name of the program ( since there's nothing stopping you renaming it I didn't hardcode "sqa.exe" ) and if it catches it during archive creation, it excludes it. Hack-ish but it works.

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A CRC check probably would do.
Just tested it... you didn't upload it correctly :p

I downloaded it, but I don't know what to do with it. I must insist that it's not all that user friendly ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mario F.

*Gasp!* I can't believe you asked that!... Die!



A CRC check probably would do.
Just tested it... you didn't upload it correctly :p

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Dammit. I'm going to check that in about 12 hours ( sleep first ) so start running if you're messing with me :p

Quote:

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I downloaded it, but I don't know what to do with it. I must insist that it's not all that user friendly

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I noes, I noes. I'll get to work on the dialog tomorrow after I've checked out my upload.

Bai 'till tomorrow, people.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ahluka

That's because I'm assuming everone here can put "Archiver" and "Game Programming" (forum) together and get "Oh, it's for archiving game data".

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You obviously have more faith in people than I do. :p

Anyway, I'll leave you be now, since i'm not really contributing anything to the thread.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ahluka

Dammit. I'm going to check that in about 12 hours ( sleep first ) so start running if you're messing with me :p

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Ugh! my bad! Sorry, it wasn't intentional. Go to bed. I downloaded to my desktop and didn't realize it created sqa(2).zip. It works fine :)

Actually I want to stay up working. I just made one more minor modification to it: I noticed while archiving it throws out a list of what it's about to add before it adds them, which is a bit misleading plus you couldn't tell whereabouts it was with progress. Now it's like extraction, I.E. lists the files as it processes them.

Same linky as before.

Tragically Poor Excuse for an Update

It's just ticked over midnight here and the only thing keeping my eyes open is the sound of RHCP up full blast ( headphones of course ).

I've just added an extremely preliminary, disgustingly crappy GUI. Ignore it all except the "Creation" mode button and the two associated edit boxes ( nothing else works ). Oh no, I lie, the "Enable Large Files" checkbox works ( it throws you a warning if you create with it checked ) but actually doesn't do anything because I've just remembered, I left out the call to flip the flag. God darn it.

Anyway, run it, laugh at it, laugh at me. I'll be back in a few hours ( like 9 ). Tomorrow I'm almost certainly going to do the GUI again from scratch anyways.

'luka, out.

Quote:

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Does the world really need another computer game?

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Hell yeah it does. ;):D

If you want ahluka I could make a front end GUI for it using MFC and/or an install program with the project deployment wizard.

Well if you're not doing anything else, sure, MFC it. I'd like to see code for that too ( I will get a copy of the source code, right? :) ) since I should start learning MFC.

Quick Update

Now you don't have to worry about directories - when it finds one it omits it instead of trying to add it like a file. Go forth and archive your desktops!
Oh and I've removed the GUI - we're back to a command prompt :)

long live the command prompt!

I'll be testing more of it this afternoon.

Ok I can front end it. I need the following info:

1. The default file extension of your archive files.
2. What types of files you can 'Add' to the archive.
3. The class functions from your archive responsible for creating/loading the archive.


My program will do this:

Creating archives

• Open program
• File->Create->New archive
• User adds/removes file from list box control via buttons and/or a right click menu.
• User clicks 'Create'
• Windows file common dialog box pops up asking name of archive.
• My code at this point will call yours passing in the file names of the files to be archived. I need to know how to pass them (array, vector, list, etc.)

Loading archives

• File->Open
• User selects valid archive files (OFN_FILEMUSTEXIST flag is in effect meaning file must be present on drive for dialog operation to be successful)
• List is populated with list of files archive consists of.
• User can then add/remove files as he/she wishes
• User can now click 'Create' to create archive with same filename of loaded archive. Archive will be completely re-written from memory to disk.
• User can now click 'Create new' to create an archive with a new filename

Merging archives

• File->New->Merged archive
• User can add/remove archive files to list
• User clicks create to create merged archive - new filename may be entered in dialog, but old filename will be by default

I'll get to work immediately. I need your class header so I can see the function prototypes.

Then I've got some extra work to do. At the moment it takes a path to a directory and sucks up every file inside it. I'll get the creation function to accept a vector of std::string's and load each file from the path specified in each element instead.

I'll post up here when I'm done ( or catch you on MSN ).

Well this can be done several ways. We can create a temp folder in the app folder and use that as the archive folder. This means I must copy the contents of each file into that folder which is probably not the fastest solution.

Or I can write the output of what belongs in a file to a temporary text file. Ill pass the text file filename to your code and you can simply read in each line, open the files, add to archive buffer, and write out final buffer when done. When you return from your CreateArchiveFromFile() function I'll delete the text file.

The best approach would be for you to stick your code into a DLL and I'll load it dynamically with LoadLibrary() and then use GetProcAddress() to get pointers to your functions. That way if you want to change how you implement the archiving you just change the DLL and it won't break the front end GUI.

Then to install the 'patched' DLL you simply use Setup and Deployment wizard and use your DLL file as the main output. This will effectively replace the DLL that was installed previously with the new DLL. It also ensures that people have the latest code updates for your program yet also ensuring them you are not writing ten zillion dlls on their drive.

Well I finished the new CreateArchive() which now accepts a vector of std::string's. I'll write another function, ParseFileList() which'll read the temp text file and add each line ( filename ) to a vector and pass it onto CreateArchive().

I'll DLL it now and email you the header.

Hmm gimmie a day to go over this, it's a mess.
Plus for reasons unbeknowest to me, it's only outputting the .lib and .exp, no .dll. I'll start a new project ( this was a SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE till I switched it and it doesn't seem to like it much ).