• amelore@slrpnk.net
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    6 months ago

    Multipart archives still exist. They’re now used for file sharing websites that have a maximum file size. Before that they were for unreliable p2p networks, so you didn’t lose the parts you’d already downloaded when your peer goes offline. Originally it was to fit something big on multiple cd-roms or floppies.

    Opening somthing.rar also reads the data in somthing.r01 through somthing.r15 etc

    • Zagorath@aussie.zone
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      6 months ago

      Opening somthing.rar also reads the data in somthing.r01 through somthing.r15 etc

      Oh so it’s just kinda a part of the rar specification then? How did that work on CDs or floppies, if presumably you’d have had to swap out to insert the next part?

      • amelore@slrpnk.net
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        6 months ago

        Yes, it asks for the next part if it’s not in the same folder with the same name, doesn’t really make a difference what it’s stored on. Multipart zip and tar also exist.

        • Zagorath@aussie.zone
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          6 months ago

          So the first file acts as a sort of index? From the earlier comment I thought it was autodetecting the presence of the numbered files and expanding what it found.