basics about current compression tools ?
 

so finally after months of reading this forums and a very helpful member, i am able to understand good few things. Yet i have some doubts

I downloaded lots of files that had pack & unpack folders with arc.exe in it, by studying the command lines posted in many posts i realized that freearc is now used as sort of a batch file, as in its used to use other tools too. eg: precomp, srep, lolz.

So here's my first question : I downloaded all the individual files (maybe all) and i understood arc.ini is used to configure the other tools that are meant to be used with freearc, i.e options for those tools are added in arc.ini.
Where can i find all the dll files that are used by freearc i have individual files but i dont know if those dlls & exes will work with freearc.
Can anyone upload theirs ?

second question : With a pattern of pack unpack and arc.ini, i feel you guys dont need to pack 1 thing at a time as now freearc does everything for you.
eg. first it was single thing at a time precompress then srep then freearc
now is it that you just dump the files to be compressed in pack folder you created and run the batch file that calls freearc with commands in arc.ini? I understand by doing this easens the entire process

third question : if my 2nd question's assumption is correct, how does freearc decompresses it ? while decompressing will i have to add the exes & dlls of other softwares (xtool,pzlib,etc) to the repack ? Does freearc knows automatically the decompression order ? eg. if its a pcf file thats srepped and then arc'd, will free arc decompress in order?

as always your questions are long enough and guys like me are lazy enough to read the whole so just write in pieces !

now about your questions

Where can i find all the dll files that are used by freearc?
Ans: Do you mean the files that are used to decompress ?

is it that you just dump the files to be compressed in pack folder you created and run the batch file that calls freearc with commands in arc.ini?
Ans: yes we dump specific files based on the compression method we gonna use on them, in simple words we separate different files based on what type of file its and put em in folders e.g their are three types of files in a game file .pck, .exe, .map

suppose these files are many of em.... you just have to separate the file types and put each file type in different folder and then you have to include freearc.exe, compressing tools, arc.ini (config) in separate folder called bin or whatever you like + create a .bat file with suitable commands + run the .bat file and it will start compressing.

how does freearc decompresses it ? while decompressing will i have to add the exes & dlls of other softwares (xtool,pzlib,etc) to the repack ? Does freearc knows automatically the decompression order ? eg. if its a pcf file thats srepped and then arc'd, will free arc decompress in order?

Ans: freearc decompresses using the .dll files and .exe files which was used to compress
e.g when compressing with srep.exe we have to include cls-srep.dll for decompressing. yes you have to add those things. yes i think so cuz we use unarc.dll while decompressing and arc.exe while compressing [same exe and dll]. any file you have compressed with certain compressor you must have to use certain decompressor for decompressing and yes i think it decompresses in order i don't much about that but if you want to know you have reverse engineer the file first or get the source or read help in free arc since it might be using some algorithm which can define what it does when decompressing and compressing.

if you any more questions write them here

by dll files i mean, i saw some screenshots of people here of their freearc folder which had all other compressors/precompressors (pzlib,precomp,xtool,srep,etc)
I assume the arc.ini has the COMMANDS/OPERATIONS for these tools, then the batch file is used to call arc.exe which carries out the compression using those tools & commands specified in arc.ini <- correct me if i'm wrong

This, the CLS things...what is it ? i assumed its used when using Inno setup, but i plan on using traditional batch file.

what does cls means ? i know what is srep.

how ? basically it should be only the executable (cz thats what i've been doing for years
eg. i compressed files in archive 'data.arc'
so my batch will have I never packed the dll with the repack and yet it decompresses fine

Are you implying all the method you mention is used in inno setup ? like you pack with compression tools then tie it together with inno and while decompressing inno can just use libraries (dll) not the exe's ?

first of all you ask too much and that confuses me alot much nvm

I assume the arc.ini has the COMMANDS/OPERATIONS for these tools, then the batch file is used to call arc.exe which carries out the compression using those tools & commands specified in arc.ini?
Ans: you are right

This, the CLS things...what is it ? i assumed its used when using Inno setup, but i plan on using traditional batch file.

what does cls means ? i know what is srep.
Ans: basically this is generated by a program called cls generator which you can find by searching it, so how they are doing it first of all get the srep.exe and put in cls gen and it will generate the specific .dll if i am right!

how ? basically it should be only the executable (cz thats what i've been doing for years
eg. i compressed files in archive 'data.arc'
so my batch will have
Ans: yes you can use the arc.exe also but sometimes it sucks and better to use .dll instead
and whatever you have been doing that time is right but somehow changed a bit and you need to change with it.

Are you implying all the method you mention is used in inno setup ? like you pack with compression tools then tie it together with inno and while decompressing inno can just use libraries (dll) not the exe's ?
Ans: mostly when we repack a game......let me explain it to you
e.g when you repack a file using srep+lolz only you implement these files lolz.exe and srep.exe but when you want to unpack them you either can use the same or use the .dll or both of em but they must have certain code to decompress it

Bruh, you solved everything i wanted, thank so so so much man !

Good! But if you have anymore questions about anything i will try to solve em....if i am right you have more questions bumping in your head ?