I have tested a lot how we can solve this problem: WE cannot avoid it: some day you need to send several files to a Windows user: you use a packing tool either because there are many files or because the file had been too fat and can be compressed. What format to use: most western people I think will choose zip, for me I got a problem: the Chinese file names, after un-packaged on Windows, is junk text because on Linux we all use UTF-8 and Windows Chinese version using different charset (GB18030) And I have tested a lot different formats: Format Created by Opened by Filename readable after unpackaged? zip 7-zip_win32 FileRoller no zip FileRoller 7-zip_win32 no rar WinRAR 3.6 FileRoller yes! rar FileRoller WinRAR 3.6 no iso mkisofs -J WinRAR 3.6 yes! jar FileRoller 7-zip no tar GnuTar WinRAR 3.6 no tar 7-zip GnuTar no cab IExpress cabextract no Note: * WinRAR 3.6 is actually WinRAR 3.60-Beta * 7-zip_win32 is a Windows software, the open-source alternative to WinRAR, can unpackage zip/tar/rar/7z formats and can create zip/tar/7z archives * IExpress is a Microsoft utility pre-installed on most Windows computers. This utility can create CAB format archive * FileRoller is SuSE 10.2's default gnome archive manager * in all above archive formats, TAR and ISO are non-compressing format, e.g. they only archive (collect files into one file). To compress them you can use gzip. So the conclusion is: 1. To send an archive file to other windows user, the only known way that can ensure file names are NOT corrupted due to locale difference is to make the archive with "mkisofs -J", unfortunately no very easy graphical user interface for this purpose. If compression is needed, compress with gzip and Windows user who have WinRAR installed can open it. 2. To send an archive file from Windows to SuSE Linux user, the only known way that can ensure filenames are not corrupted due to locale difference is to make RAR archive with WinRAR (only tested v3.60-beta). 3. Non of known Linux archive formats can handle character-set conversion. "mkisofs -J" is actually using a Microsoft format, and WinRAR is proprietary; 4. 7z format is not tested because most Windows & Linux users cannot directly create/open 7z format archive without install special software so it cannot be used as a general solution. This information might be very useful for asian people on this list. P.S. I have already spent a lot of time getting this partial conclusion, would be very appreciated if someone provide more insightful suggestions or correction! P.S. "mkisofs -J" do not allow file names with more then 64 characters. If you do have such long named files, unfortunately there is no known way you can archive them and deliver to Windows user while ensure the file name not corrupted. -- Zhang Weiwu Real Softservice http://www.realss.com +86 592 2091112 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org