How do you add avast to pkzip?

[galen]

My version is PKZIP 6.0.147. It isn't the latest, but the recent upgrades have no new features that I needed. I've just had a quick look on www.pkware.com and it looks as though it's no longer available as shareware, and hence not downloadable in a trial version, but earlier versions might be around somewhere.

Anyway, the settings are Tools > Options > Virus Scan

Select Virus Scanner
No scanner selected

Program name
c:\program files\alwil software\avast4\ashquick.exe

Program argument
%e

The "built in" options which are listed under "select Virus Scanner" work fine with Norton and F-Prot (and I assume the others too) , and I've always been able to get the user configurable ones to work in the past with other programs.

[galen]

A bit more information. Since I last posted, I've tried running ashquick from the Start > Run prompt.  If I run  

c:\program files\......\ashquick.exe c:\temp\

the program executes correctly, checks c:\temp and exits showing the results and the path checked as "c:\temp\" (single quotes).

If I run

c:\program files\....\ashquick.exe c:\temp\*.*

the program fails with the "Can't find path" error .  The path checked is still shown in single quotes as "c:\temp\*.*" on exit.

Whilst I don't see the significance of their only being single quotes this time, it would certainly seem that ashquick will only accept the path as a command line parameter, and will not accept the path with the wild card *.* on the end of the path. As PKZIP seems to pass the path plus this wild card to the virus checker, I imagine this is what causes the problem - but, of course, this does not explain why it happens. Is the fact that ashquick doesn't accept wild card parameters correct, or is this a bug?

[galen]

I think I've found the answer - it seems to work fine here.  The setup is this.

In PKZIP go to Tools > Options > Folders

Set "Miscellaneous temporary folder" to any folder that is normally empty (to save checking other files lying around in there) Make one if preferred - for this example say it is c:\pkzipvirustest

Go to the Virus Scan tab.

Fill in the three fields :-

Select Virus Scanner
Unlisted Virus Scanner

Program Name
c:\program files\alwil software\avast4\ashquick.exe
(if you have used the standard installation directory)

Program arguments
c:\pkzipvirustest
(or whatever you called your empty directory)

DON'T pass the %e or any other parameter. Don't put anything in quotes

That should do it.

[galen]

I should have added to the last message that this only works for virus checking a file without extracting it. If you want to extract files to a specified directory and virus check as you do so, ashquick will only look in the directory name we supplied it with, so it will fail - if you want it to work with *any * target directory my fix doesn't work as Avast still can't accept the %e directory that PKZIP passes to it.  It would be nice if it could be changed so it will accept the same parameters that the other antivirus programs do in a future version.

[igor]

I just tried with PKZIP 8 and seems to work without any problems for me...

The setting was:
Scanner: Unlisted Virus Scanner
Program name: C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashQuick.exe
Program arguments: %e

PKZIP always passes the folder name to ashQuick - when performing the "Virus Scan" action, it's a temporary folder created in TEMP, after Extraction it's the folder name you selected as the target (which is not fully correct, in my opinion, because there may be lots of other files in the folder, but ok). The folder is always passed as a short name, so there shouldn't be any problems with spaces.

Of course, the behavior may have changed somehow since PKZIP 6 to 8...

[galen]

The settings you quote are exactly those I tried with version 6, and it fails every time. My kludge only works with the virus check function, as I said, and not with the "extract to any directory". I've written to PKware (I was going to say Phil Katz, but I bet he's retired long ago :-) ) and asked what parameter is actually passed by v6, but I'm fairly sure from  ashquick's error message that it is passing it wrapped in quotes. You're quite correct that PKZIP really shouldn't extract to a directory containing files but, in their defence, it does warn you not to when you extract.

Anyway, I can't afford to buy a new version of PKZIP (there aren't enough new features to justify it, and no one I know can handle the higher compressions in v6, never mind v.8 - so I guess I'll have to give up at that - or always extract to the same directory.

[Lisandro]

Galen, I really suggest you go to 7-Zip
http://www.7-zip.org/

The main features of 7-Zip:

Highest compression ratio in new 7z format with LZMA compression
7-Zip is free software distributed under the GNU LGPL
Supported formats: 7z, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, CPIO, RPM and DEB
For ZIP and GZIP formats 7-Zip provides compression ratio that is 2-10 % better than ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip
Self-extracting capability for 7z format
Integration with Windows Shell
Powerful File Manager
Powerful command line version
Plugin for FAR Manager
Localizations for 47 languages

Freeware

[galen]

I'll have a look at 7ZIP - especially as you mentioned the magic word - FREE :-)  I've never thought  of changing, I've been using PKZIP since my Fidonet bulletin  board days when Phil Katz first produced the Zip format and had his big legal patent battles with ARC  - so I've sort of got used to it.

I've just had an email from PKWARE confirming that the %e parameter is passed wrapped in quotes in v6, so since your version 8 works just fine, I've written back to ask if they've changed the parameter that is passed.

[Lisandro]

Especially as you mentioned the magic word - FREE :-)

Click on 'Links' in my signature and enjoy  

[galen]

I did, and I will. Thank very much. I've bookmarked the page, and it will get some use, I'm sure.

[galen]

I just tried with PKZIP 8 and seems to work without any problems for me...

Of course, the behavior may have changed somehow since PKZIP 6 to 8...

It has - I just had a reply from PKware. Versions 6 and 8 are completely different, and version 8 doesn't wrap the %e in quotes like version 6. Albeit that doesn't solve my problem, at least it tells us that v6 and Avast! are incompatible, so I can stop trying and make do with what I've got.

[igor]

I'll try to do something about it.

[galen]

It would be nice if you could, - but since my PKZIP is out of date anyway, don't go to too much trouble.