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How can I preview contents of an archive, (.zip, .tar, .rar etc) which is available in internet, before downloading it?

eg: UC browser in phone can preview .zip, .tar etc file

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Example of .tar is given. What about others (.zip..) ? –  totti May 5 '13 at 10:16
Hm, add on for firefox? rollapp.com/plugin?ref=carousel , looks like it opens in a server.. –  Mateo May 6 '13 at 6:10
Why not constructive? I can't belive it's closed –  totti May 6 '13 at 8:53
It is not constructive because you are posting non-answers as answers to your own question, and looking to discuss how to do it, rather than get an actual answer to your question. Ask Ubuntu isn't a discussion forum. If you want to discuss possibilities, then Ubuntu Forums would perhaps be a better place. –  dobey May 6 '13 at 13:08
I have now tried UC browser, and clicked on a zip file, it no longer says "preview" but is now labled as "cloud download". –  Mateo May 6 '13 at 22:22
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closed as not constructive by dobey, Thomas W., Mateo, Luis Alvarado May 6 '13 at 2:24


1 Answer

You really can't, in a generic sense.

You can use the Open in… feature in Firefox at least, which will download the file to the /tmp/ directory and open it in File Roller, the default archive application. Some file formats are not able to be opened, without both the beginning, and end, of the file in place, so the entire file must be downloaded, whether it is to /tmp/ or the location you wish to save it in. In Chrome or Chromium, the file will always be downloaded to the configured Downloads folder, regardless of whether you are saving it, or just want to open it for viewing.

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I don't think so. Some browsers (UC browser in Phone) allow to preview file –  totti May 5 '13 at 10:06
@totti Firefox nor Chrome do this, and even if they did, the contents of the file would still need to be downloaded. You would need a web service somewhere that did it all on the server, to avoid downloading to the client, for this. –  dobey May 5 '13 at 13:58
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