Wishlist entry: retain or choose Zip compression method

[Reinhard]

Hi, good people.

I have to work a lot with huge zip archives that are created without any compression enabled. These archives are input for an application, later on.

When I merge or copy files of these in BC3, the files are stored with the "deflate" method.

Unfortunately, the application processing those archives isn't able to handle these changed Zip entries. So after using BC3, I have to re-pack Zip files all the time, to retain the original store mode. It's driving me mad, and it's error-prone.

Changing the application dealing with these uncompressed archives is not an option, sorry.

So I would be glad if BC3 would be able to retain the storage mode of merged or copied files. Or to offer a default compression method choice, including "store only".

Thanks for listening.

[Aaron]

Hello,

This is not currently supported in Beyond Compare 3. I would recommend using a custom process to unzip your files, compare the unzipped folders with BC3, and then re-zip after the comparison. Beyond Compare can be called from the command line with 2 folder parameters to automatically launch a folder comparison. Detailed documentation is available in the Help file under Command Line Reference.

Let us know if you have any questions.

[Reinhard]

Hello Aaron, thanks for your reply.

Yes, I'm aware that this is not supported now. And I admit it would be a "nice to have" feature only for a small group of users, even irrelevant for the vast majority. Like ClearCase support.

But it would make my live much more easy. And enhance the practical value of BC by magnitudes, for me. And please don't underestimate how often archives with zip directory format, but without compression are used, to achieve bundling in a tool chain where compression would only complicate things.

Well, scripting: using the command line is not an option for me. And as I'm working with a system I have no in-deep knowledge of (Windows), it would cost me days until I would have established a solution. Which means I can process two zips in a transparent and reliable manner, just selecting them with the context menue.

So I hope that at least a setting which let the user choose an uncompressed store method will be considered serious enough to make it into a to-do list. And finally made available, some lucky day