Re: Towards a cleaner build: arc-mode

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <address@hidden>
> Cc: address@hidden
> Date: Sat, 18 May 2019 05:56:04 +0200
> 
> I'm wondering whether arc-mode.el is maintained, because it seems rather
> er odd, and when I use the functions that actually use the library
> functions we want to change, I'm getting bug-outs.

It's maintained, but old and largely unused archive formats bit-rot
with time.

>   archive-lzh-rename-entry("text2" ["text.txt" "text.txt" nil nil 930])
> 
> So finding code in there that works to check whether the changes we want
> to make are sound is proving a challenge.  :-)
> 
> Hm...  here's the matrix of supported functionality:
> 
> ;;                    Arc     Lzh     Zip     Zoo     Rar     7z
> ;;                    --------------------------------------------
> ;; View listing               Intern  Intern  Intern  Intern  Y       Y
> ;; Extract member     Y       Y       Y       Y       Y       Y
> ;; Save changed member        Y       Y       Y       Y       N       Y
> ;; Add new member     N       N       N       N       N       N
> ;; Delete member      Y       Y       Y       Y       N       Y
> ;; Rename member      Y       Y       N       N       N       N
> ;; Chmod              -       Y       Y       -       N       N
> ;; Chown              -       Y       -       -       N       N
> ;; Chgrp              -       Y       -       -       N       N
> 
> Renaming files is only supported in .arc and .lzh files...  neither of
> which are used much any more.  Perhaps those should be marked as
> obsolete (especially since at least one of them don't work any more)?
> 
> Let's see...  `archive-zip-chmod-entry' actually seems to work, and uses
> `insert-unibyte'...  but only on numbers, not strings, so I don't know
> how to test the string part.  *scratches head*

If zip archives work with the change, I suggest to make the change,
leave behind a FIXME comment regarding those which don't seem to work,
and file a bug report about that.  I will try to get to that when I
have time, if no one beats me to it.

Thanks.