What are these files and why........

[IcSilk]

I have many files on my system (windows xp) that I can't open. The icon for these files is what looks like a pieces of paper with a picture of a windows window on it. they are in file formats like .man and .tar.gz etc. Many of these files are things I have personally downloaded (the *.tar.gz is what should have been a PERL compiler. The message I get when I open (or try to) one of these files is - "Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access them". The account that I use on my PC is defined as an administrator account (not a guest account).
can someone tell me what is going on here and how I can remedy it?

Thanx

[Cybr1d]

.tar and .gz are linux files, You cannot open them in XP.

[HTRegz]

Originally posted here by Cybr1d
.tar and .gz are linux files, You cannot open them in XP.

Hey Hey,

Disregard this post as it is 100% wrong. You can open .tar and .gz files with WinRAR. They can also be opened with the command line tar.exe and gzip.exe that you can download from many different places. If you were really desperate you could write a Python script (I actually have a tutorial posted on how to do this) that would extract the contents of the files. There are many other programs that will open these files, they are nothing more than archived and compressed files. I'd question the error message and go into file types and see which program it's associated with, maybe you should change the association to one of the aforementioned programs.

Peace,
HT

[Cybr1d]

Hey Hey,

Disregard this post as it is 100% wrong. You can open .tar and .gz files with WinRAR. They can also be opened with the command line tar.exe and gzip.exe that you can download from many different places. If you were really desperate you could write a Python script (I actually have a tutorial posted on how to do this) that would extract the contents of the files. There are many other programs that will open these files, they are nothing more than archived and compressed files. I'd question the error message and go into file types and see which program it's associated with, maybe you should change the association to one of the aforementioned programs.

Hmm...learn something new every day thanks HT. I thought you could only open them in linux. I don't use WinRar much as it shows

[MrLinus]

IIRC, so does WinZip.

From WinZip 9's website:

Although Zip is by far the most common archive format on the Internet, you may occasionally come across files in other formats. WinZip provides support for the most commonly found archive and compression formats:

* TAR ("Tape ARchive") is an old file format that is used to group files together. It does not provide compression. WinZip supports all operations on TAR files except creating new TAR files and adding to TAR files.
* Z and GZ: these are individual files compressed by the gzip program. Z and GZ files do not contain multiple files. WinZip supports all operations on gzip files except creating new ones.
* TAZ and TGZ are TAR files compressed in Z or GZ format. WinZip supports all operations on TAZ/TGZ files except creating new ones.

[nihil]

You might like to look at EasyOffice. It contains a module called EasyZip which allows full manipulation of .tar, GZ and so on.

I would go with HTRegz's comment that you need to check your file associations. I think that the icon you describe means that the file is not associated with a program..............I have just checked my XP Pro box and zipped files shou the EasyZip ico, which shows that the asociation has been set up.

Cheers