Compressed Files

Vaste opens compressed files directly. It decompresses the file into a cache folder, opens the decompressed copy, and shows the original file’s name. Every view, search, and tool then works on the decompressed copy.

Supported formats

Vaste recognizes a compressed file by its first bytes, not by its file name extension. A plain text file named notes.gz opens as text, and a gzip file without an extension still opens as gzip.

Vaste opens these formats:

gzip, including files made of several gzip parts joined together.
zstd.
xz.
bzip2, including files made of several bzip2 streams.
zip, for files inside the archive that are stored or compressed with Deflate or Deflate64. Encrypted zip archives cannot be opened, and a file compressed with another method fails to open with an error that ends with Compression method not supported.

Vaste removes one layer of compression. A .tar.gz file opens as the .tar archive inside it, which Vaste shows in Hex view as one binary file. It does not list the files in a tar archive.

For the full list of file types Vaste recognizes, see Supported formats.

Open a compressed file

Open the file as you open any other file. See Opening files.

If the file is a zip archive with more than one file in it, choose one. See Zip archives with several files.
If Vaste asks Large compressed file, check the size and select Decompress to continue, or Cancel to stop. See The size prompt.
Wait while Vaste decompresses the file. The Decompressing overlay shows the percentage of the compressed file read so far, or Reading archive… when the total is unknown, and how much it has written.

To stop, select Cancel or press Esc in the overlay. Vaste deletes the partly written copy. If another file was open in the window, it stays open. Once the decompressed copy is written, the overlay stays while Vaste prepares the file, and Cancel no longer stops it from opening.

If a decompressed copy of the file is already in the cache, Vaste skips these steps and opens the copy at once.

The size prompt

Before it decompresses a file, Vaste estimates the decompressed size and asks for confirmation (Large compressed file) when:

the decompressed size is unknown,
the decompressed size is larger than 1 GiB, or
the decompressed size is larger than 80% of the free space on the drive that holds the cache.

The prompt shows the estimated size and the free space, and turns red when the file would not fit. xz and bzip2 files never record their decompressed size, and some zstd files do not, so these files always show the prompt. For a gzip file made of several gzip parts joined together, the estimate can be much smaller than the real size.

If the estimate is larger than the free space, Vaste refuses to decompress the file and shows a message that starts with insufficient disk space for the decompressed file. When the size is unknown, or for a gzip file made of several parts, Vaste cannot check the free space reliably, so make sure the cache drive has room before you select Decompress.

Zip archives with several files

A zip archive with one file opens that file directly. A zip archive with several files shows Choose a file in followed by the archive name, with the name and size of each file. Folders are not listed. Type in Filter entries… to narrow the list, and select a file, or press Enter to open the first file in the filtered list.

Vaste opens one file from the archive at a time. To read another file from the same archive, open the archive again, in the same window or a new one. An archive with no files shows The archive contains no files.

The decompressed cache

Vaste keeps decompressed copies in a cache folder. When you open the same archive later, Vaste uses its copy and skips decompression. If you move, rename, or change the archive, Vaste decompresses it again.

The Decompressed cache size setting sets the most space the copies may use, from 1 to 500 GB. The default is 10 GB. Each time Vaste starts, it deletes unfinished copies, then copies decompressed more than 30 days ago, and then the oldest copies until the cache fits the limit. The cache can grow past the limit while Vaste runs, and a file you opened a while ago may need to be decompressed again.

For where the cache is and how it is cleaned up, see Data and cache locations.

While a compressed file is open

The title bar shows the archive’s name and its format, for example GZ. Hover over the name to see the archive’s path and, for a zip archive, the file inside it.
The status bar shows the format. Hover over it to see the compressed and decompressed sizes. The file size in the status bar is the decompressed size.
Search, Hex view, checksums, and File statistics all read the decompressed copy. Checksums therefore do not match the checksum published for the archive. See Checksums.
Bookmarks and the encoding you choose belong to the archive, so they come back the next time you open it.

Reloading a compressed file

Vaste watches the archive, not the decompressed copy. When the archive changes and Auto reload is on, or when you press Ctrl + R, Vaste decompresses the whole archive again and replaces the copy. If the archive has not changed, Vaste shows no notification, but the reload still clears search results and the other items in What a reload keeps and clears.

A reload of a compressed file shows only Reloading… in the status bar. It does not show the size prompt or the progress overlay, and it cannot be canceled. A changed archive is always read again in full, so new lines at the end are not detected as added lines. See Live reload.

Recent files and sessions

The recent files list and saved sessions keep the archive’s path, and show the format next to the name. Opening a zip archive with several files from the list asks again which file to open. If the decompressed copy is still in the cache, the file opens without the size prompt.

Next steps

Data and cache locations: where Vaste keeps decompressed copies and when it deletes them
Live reload: reload a file when it changes on disk
Supported formats: the compressed formats Vaste recognizes