Sometimes when you unpack a .tar.gz file, it spills files all over your current directory, so you have to make a new directory to unpack in if you want to avoid a mess. But other .tar.gz files have their own top-level directory, so unpacking in a new directory is not necessary and creates a different kind of mess.
The answer is unarc, which unpacks an archive and creates a top-level directory if it's needed. Unarc works with lots of archives, not just tarballs - .tar.bz2, .zip and even .rpm are supported. It's a simple and tidy way to unpack most archives.
There is a companion program arcdir which provides a uniform way to archive directories into tarfiles, zipfiles and so on. It should be easy to add support for new filetypes and archivers.
Usage:
unarc filename(s)
Unpack the archives specified, each into its own directory. The archiver to use is chosen based on the filename.
arcdir directory(s)
Archive each directory individually, using the default archive type tar.bz2. Each directory will be archived into dirname.tar.bz2.
arcdir -t type directory(s)
where type is one of zip, tar.gz, etc.
Archive directories into a type of archive you choose. For example, arcdir -t zip foo will archive foo/ into foo.zip.
Requirements:
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