CleanArchiver Editor's Review

CleanArchiver is a simple to use archive program with the support for multiple output formats.

I've been testing lately several archiving utilities. This is a good thing because I could compare the results with other tools, such as StuffIt Standard or 7zX.

The application supports GZIP, BZIP2, ZIP, and DMG disk images as formats for archiving. It also supports StuffIt/Stuffit X if you have installed the 'DropStuff' StuffIt component which is called via AppleScript. The desired output can be easily chosen from a drop-down list that you can find on the application's window. This window is the only interface that is available for you, there isn't a 'Preferences' panel implemented. You can set the desired output settings right from this window.

Besides the archiving algorithm picked, there are other options available, such as saving the resource fork of the file, the exclusion of the system file .DS_Store, the exclusion of the icon file, as well as options like if the application should archive individually, if the program should replace the files automatically, or if the output image should be Internet-Enabled. You can't set a default output location, so the file would be placed into the same folder as the source.

I like the fact that it has the support for file types that are usually used for distribution of the software over the Internet, especially the support for DMG. The DMG support doesn't give you the possibility to customize the layout of the outputted image. However, this is the usual support that you can get from a free application.

The archiving is simple. All you do is drag-and-drop a file or folder onto the application's interface and wait for the process to finish. The DMG image creation requires you to drop on the application's window only folders, the files are forbidden in this action. There is a bar, which should be a progress bar, but it doesn't show you the real progress of the action. This is a minor interface flaw, that doesn't affect any of the application's functionality.

The usual stress test was with a big 2.33 GB folder containing all kind of file types, including media files, documents, images, and archives. I have picked the BZIP2 compression because this is the strongest compression from the supported list. The application doesn't have the support for multi-core machines. Just one of the cores of this Intel Core Duo was used for this archiving activity. The result was an 893 MB .tar.bz2 archive. Fair enough for the type of compression.

Pluses: it has the support for various compression types, it's easy to use, it has an user friendly interface.

Drawbacks / flaws: the progress bar doesn't work as expected, you can't control the compression level of the output image, you can't set a default output path.

In conclusion: this tool does quite a lot for a free application. The support for the DMG image format is fair, but if you would like more control over this format tools, then DMGConverter, CreaDMG or DMG Packager are alternatives which are dedicated solutions.

version reviewed: 2.4a2