Software information: SparkFS (self-extracting)

Overview

A read-only version of SparkFS by David Pilling.

SparkFS provides a general purpose RISC OS file system interface to access the contents of compressed archives and other file formats (such as zip and tar).

SparkFS is an image filing system – objects (in this case archives) will behave like directories when SparkFS is loaded. For example, Filer will look inside archives when searching a directory tree.

Installation Instructions

Download the self-extracting archive and set its filetype to Utility (&FFC). Double-click on the file to unpack its contents: the !SparkFS application can then be dragged to the directory of your choice.

!SparkFS is usually installed in $.Utilities in the standard HardDisc4 build.

Issues

• SparkFS may run out of memory when processing a large (or complex) archive. If this happens, click Menu on the SparkFS icon bar icon and choose Choices. Drag the Maximum bar to the right to increase the maximum memory (the upper limit is 32MB). A value of 16MB should be sufficient for most needs.

• ZIP decompression does not multi-task while unpacking a file from an archive: it only multi-tasks while copying the unpacked file to its destination. With very large archives (e.g. “RISC OS Pi”, which unpacks to give a 2GB image) the computer can apparently freeze for upwards of 4 minutes during the unpacking process.

• The read-only version of !SparkFS loads a read-only version of the SparkFS module. If you unload SparkFS by clicking on “Quit” itself (or by choosing “Quit > Filer” from the menu) and then load the read/write version, the still-loaded (i.e. read-only) module will be used and SparkFS will not be able to create or update any archives.
  Workaround: Unload SparkFS by means of “Quit > FS too”, then load the read/write version of SparkFS.

If you are experiencing other problems with this software, first check to see if a ticket has been raised on the Bug tracker page. You may also want to visit the Bugs forum.

If you have a general query related to the software, you can enquire on the Community Support forum.

History of the component

To view the release history for versions available on the ROOL web site, visit the GitLab Commits page (releases are “tagged” with the version number).

Obtaining the software

This software is usually supplied as part of the standard HardDisc4 build.

The latest version of the software can be obtained from David Pilling’s website

Source code is not available for this component.¹

¹ SparkFS is a third-party product and is only distributed in binary form.