Archive Extractor

Overview

The Archive Extractor is a Bash script designed to automate the extraction of various archive formats. It provides flexible options for processing archives, including batch extraction, post-processing actions, and detailed logging capabilities.

The script was created using language models: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini.

Read the story behind.

Features

Supports multiple archive formats: .tar.gz, .tar.7z, .tar.bz2, .tar.xz, .7z, .zip
Configurable through command-line options or environment variables
Post-processing options: moving, removing, or marking processed files
Detailed logging with different verbosity levels
Pretend mode for testing configurations
Processing limit of 100 files per run
Fallback options for different extraction tools

Prerequisites

The script requires one or more of the following commands based on the archive formats you want to process:

tar: For handling tar-based archives (.tar.gz, .tar.bz2, .tar.xz)
7z: For handling .7z files and as a fallback for .zip files
unzip: Primary handler for .zip files

Usage

./extractor.sh [options]

Command Line Options

Option	Long Option	Description	Default
`-c`	`--config`	Configuration file path	`.env`
`-s`	`--search`	Directory to scan for archives	`.`
`-o`	`--output`	Directory to extract archives to	Current directory
`-a`	`--archive`	Directory to move processed archives to	None
`-m`	`--mark`	Mark file extension	`.mark`
`-r`	`--remove`	Remove archives after processing	Disabled
`-v`	`--verbose`	Enable detailed logging	Disabled
`-q`	`--quiet`	Suppress all non-error output	Disabled
`-p`	`--pretend`	Show operations without executing them	Disabled
`-h`	`--help`	Show help message	N/A

Environment Variables

The script can be configured using environment variables, which can be set directly or through a configuration file:

CONFIG: Path to configuration file
SEARCH: Directory to scan for archives
OUTPUT: Extraction output directory
ARCHIVE: Directory for processed archives
MARK: Mark file extension
REMOVE: Remove archives after processing
VERBOSE: Enable verbose logging
QUIET: Suppress non-error output
PRETEND: Enable pretend mode

Configuration File

The script supports configuration through an environment file (default: .env). Example configuration:

SEARCH="/path/to/archives"
OUTPUT="/path/to/output"
ARCHIVE="/path/to/processed"
MARK=".processed"
REMOVE="0"
VERBOSE="1"

Post-Processing Options

The script provides three mutually exclusive post-processing options:

Archive: Move processed files to an archive directory
Remove: Delete processed files
Mark: Create a mark file to indicate processing completion

Exit Codes

0: No archives processed, or all operations successful
1-100: Number of successfully processed archives
255: Error occurred during processing

Examples

Basic usage with default options:

./extractor.sh

Extract to specific directory with verbose logging:

./extractor.sh --output /path/to/output --verbose

Process archives and move them to an archive directory:

./extractor.sh --search /path/to/archives --archive /path/to/processed

Test configuration without actual processing:

./extractor.sh --pretend --verbose

Logging Levels

The script provides four logging levels:

Error: Always displayed (stderr)
Warning: Displayed unless quiet mode is enabled
Info: Displayed unless quiet mode is enabled
Verbose: Only displayed when verbose mode is enabled

Limitations

Maximum processing limit of 100 files per run
Only processes files in the immediate search directory (depth=1)
Requires appropriate extraction tools for different archive formats

Error Handling

Validates directories before processing
Checks for required commands before extraction
Reports detailed error messages
Maintains count of errors encountered

Best Practices

Always test new configurations with --pretend mode first
Use verbose mode (-v) for detailed operation logging
Consider using mark files instead of removing archives for safety
Check exit codes for automated processing
Ensure required extraction tools are installed for your archive types

zoltraks / archive-extractor