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I receive an error when attempting to use winzip to extract a .zip file. The filename contains a colon character (used in the timestamp). Is this something that winzip does not handle?
Also, the file has the extension ".tar.gz". Is it permissible to use winzip to extract or will I have to use gunzip?

Thanks in advance!

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migrated from stackoverflow.com Aug 28 '12 at 15:09

This question came from our site for professional and enthusiast programmers.

up vote 2 down vote accepted

WinZip does not handle : in file names simply because it's not an allowed character in file names on Windows.

It's both used in disk names (C:\) and to separate an alternate file stream from the file name (olle:kalle is an alternate file stream kalle in the file olle)

See the Wikipedia page on file name restrictions for more details.

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