Archive name and parameters dialog: files
Names of files and folders to compress. This field is automatically filled by selected file names, but, if necessary, you may edit them manually or press "Append" button to choose more files to add to the list.
It is allowed to enter wildcard masks here. In this case WinRAR will search for files matching a mask in the current folder and all subfolders. If you need to specify several masks, separate them by spaces. If mask contains spaces, enclose it in quotes. For example, you may enter:
*.txt *.doc "set 1.*"
to archive all .txt and .doc files and files matching "set 1.*" mask.
File masks and file names to exclude from the archiving operation. Wildcards are supported both in path and name parts of masks. If you need to specify several masks, separate them by spaces. If mask contains spaces, enclose it in quotes. For example, you may enter:
c:\temp\info.txt *.bak *.tmp *\temp\
to skip c:\temp\info.txt file, all .bak and .tmp files, all temp folders and all files in temp folders. You may enter file names manually or use "Append" button to browse for file to exclude.
Detailed information about exclusion masks syntax is provided in description of switch -x. This switch uses the same format of exclusion masks as "Files to exclude" field.
File masks and file names to store without compression. This option may be used to store already compressed files, which helps to increase archiving speed without noticeable loss in the compression ratio. If you need to specify several masks, separate them by spaces. If mask contains spaces, enclose it in quotes. For example, you may enter:
*.rar *.zip *.jpg
to store without compression all RAR and ZIP archives and JPG images.
Select the method of storing file paths in archive. WinRAR can store relative paths which is the default mode, full file paths except the drive letter and leading backslash character, file names only without paths or full paths including the drive letter.
Relative paths mode excludes the current WinRAR folder. For paths entered manually in "Files to add" field it excludes the base folder up to last path separator similarly to -ep1 switch.
If you store names without paths, it is possible to create an archive containing several files with the same name, so use "Do not store paths" option with care.
If you store full paths including the drive letter, WinRAR will replace drive separators (colons) by underscore characters. WinRAR is able to change underscores back to colons and create unpacked files in their original folders and disks, if you set "Extract absolute paths" option in "Advanced" part of extraction dialog. You may read more about potential benefits and dangers of "Store full paths including the drive letter" mode in the description of -ep3 switch, which is the command line equivalent of this WinRAR option.
Put each selected file or folder to separate archive. If you set this option, an entered archive name is treated only as a destination path for new archives (if it is not a folder, its name part is ignored) and archive names are generated basing on file names.
This option modifies "Put each file to separate archive" behavior. If "Double extensions for archives" is on, archives produced by "Put each file to separate archive" will have names in filename.ext.rar style, with archive extension appended to file name. If this option is off, we'll have filename.rar archives with a file extension replaced by archive extension. Even if this option is off, WinRAR can apply the double extension mode to files which have the same name part and differ in extension only.
This option modifies "Put each file to separate archive" behavior. If "Archives in subfolders" is on, "Put each file to separate archive" will place every file in selected subfolders to separate archive. If this option is off, the entire contents of every selected folder will be stored to separate archive.
This option allows to attach a created archive to email message. You need to have an installed MAPI compliant email program to use this option (most modern email programs support MAPI interface). If you do not enter a destination email address here, it will be asked by your email program. It is possible to specify several addresses separated by commas or semicolons. If you set "and then delete" option, an archive will be deleted after it was successfully attached to an email.
If Send archive by email option is used when creating a multivolume archive, every volume will be attached to a separate email message.