Engrampa — The Complete Guide: The MATE Desktop’s Archive Manager on Linux
Engrampa is the archive manager of the MATE desktop. It began as a fork of File Roller, keeps a simple, classic interface, and comes preinstalled on distributions such as Ubuntu MATE and Linux Mint MATE. Opening an archive shows its folders in a familiar tree, and extracting is a matter of choosing a destination and clicking once.
Engrampa
MATE Desktop
The MATE desktop’s archive manager on Linux, a fork of File Roller: create and extract ZIP, 7Z and TAR, and open RAR and ISO.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- Creation — ZIP, 7Z and TAR with GZ, BZ2 or XZ.
- Opening — RAR, ARJ, LZH, ISO and DEB and RPM packages.
- Caja integration — compress and extract from the file manager menu.
- Browsing — view the contents and open a single file.
- Open source — GPL, free for commercial use as well.
Who it suits
Engineers on a MATE-based distribution who want a tool that fits the desktop. As with File Roller, formats depend on the command-line tools installed, and you may need an extra package to open RAR or 7Z.
Related tools
The project it was forked from, for GNOME — File Roller. For other light desktops — Xarchiver. For a richer tool with advanced compression settings — PeaZip.
File Roller
GNOME Project
The GNOME archive manager on Linux: create, view and extract ZIP, 7Z and TAR, and open RAR, ISO, DEB and RPM.
Get it from the vendor
Xarchiver
Ingo Brückl (originally Giuseppe Torelli)
Lightweight Linux archive manager independent of any desktop environment: ZIP, 7Z and TAR, plus RAR, ARJ, DEB and RPM.
Get it from the vendor
Ark
KDE
KDE’s archive manager for Linux: create, browse, preview and edit ZIP, 7Z and TAR, and open RAR, ISO and CAB.
Get it from the vendor
PeaZip
Giorgio Tani
Open, create and encrypt archives in 200+ formats, including splitting large model files.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
On MATE, Engrampa is the natural choice: simple, stable and already installed. There is little reason to look further for everyday packing and unpacking.