.vcv patch files are not text

[user888]

When I save any patch file I cannot read the contents. Here’s an example:

(µ/˝HÌ~ „à.@òGIPJJRÎ∞0@,“PÃ2Ä܈†ùÏ-Ô$"πçê4)õ±¨h«TH)Xî€2•îRíI∂à(•∫»è˙v@ÔÆúWàV”^ÿı◊4ˆCj÷&ÖI¨Ô%ÛƒßÊbTÑt•ø¶±C∞?8˚ºˆ¬ÆaflÑy-Çû¨Î∞Î/&äMDÕöaRò‘äÖ"8∫d∞1Ç›‰;®~u Leh›“Fæ±∆æQ‹í•≈≤n2seÊÚ¥πˆ œkkÕÕ6Wym¶ı≤àn´†)%îË˙Ç’≠\Ø≤ƒ´ Jg≈3[)•Ωÿn≥r∑nWfi*•ƒÛ≤dûu÷[∑Y•î2gΩ|)∫rÂùiÑ∫•U˘ÇƒA{∞NTÛ95*x¡¶ã÷-Ì{Í∂|.pˆyZ˜Íñ˚f Ô∫A|Úƒ#nÊniMÆLaåu/≠{g`ëìK|π¥niü’ïyâPZ∑¥ÿÎ√Æ…•u2ÿÿ-≠i≈ßò÷“∫±Û¥-WW∑˚∆–ë®ÇQë——a⨺71Å0≠WAtÎ’µU“

MacOS 10.14. I tried VCV Rack versions 2.0.0 - 2.0.4 with the same results.

[Olival_Clanaro (Valentin Lafitau)]

Maybe some UTF setting that is not right in your text viewing app ? Try messing with it and see if it resolves it . I definitely seeing a lot of characters here that i think aren’t UTF-8 . I haven’t messed with V2 yet though so i’m not sure

[Yeager (Peter Vos)]

The v2 files are packed with zstd and are no longer readable.

[carbon14 (David O'Rourke)]

You can unpack them with zstd (it might be called zstandard on windows).

[Jens.Peter.Nielsen]

replacing Vult Free with Vult commercial

From the system::archiveDirectory/unarchiveDirectory() docs. To archive, ZSTD_CLEVEL=1 tar -cf patch.vcv --zstd -C dir . To unarchive, tar -xf patch.vcv --zstd -C dir

[PaulPiko]

Rack 2 patch files are tar archive files that are then compressed with zstd. If you have the appropriate tools you can extract the text file. The new file format allows additional files like samples to be stored with the patch.

[pachde (Paul Dempsey)]

In a MinGW window set up for building rack on Windows per the dev guide, it’s zstd.

The original JSON format could easily have contained samples (base64-encoded). They’d tend to get large and be slower to load, so probably an ok choice to go to compressed format.

[Jens.Peter.Nielsen]

perhaps the json parser don’t like large blob’s like that.

I think tar and zstd is a fine solution.

would be nice with a gui archiver/unarchiver for these .vcv = .tar.zst files - perhaps 7zip or others will catch up, if they didn’t allready.

[rsmus7 (Stephan)]

there is a 7zip version with zstd included (at least for win and linux it should work)
Releases · mcmilk/7-Zip-zstd · GitHub

and there is a plugin for totalcommander :
GitHub - mcmilk/7-Zip-zstd: 7-Zip with support for Brotli, Fast-LZMA2, Lizard, LZ4, LZ5 and Zstandard

[LarsBjerregaard]

@user888

When I save any patch file I cannot read the contents

From https://github.com/VCVRack/Rack/blob/v2/CHANGELOG.md:

Use new .vcv patch format, an archive (POSIX tar compressed with Zstandard) of a patch.json file, module patch assets, and potentially other future files.

Rack development blog

Rack v2 has a new .vcv patch format, which is a compressed folder containing the JSON-serialized patch.json file and other files, such as module patch assets. Read more: Other changes: Add module whitelist to Module Browser which synchronizes individual modules chosen in the VCV Library. Re-render framebuffers when subpixel offset changes, fixing bug that makes ports and knobs appear slightly offset at certain zoom levels. API Add several convenient filesystem routines to system::. Move al…

@rsmus7

and there is a plugin for totalcommander

Cool! Pro-tip for Windows users: Total Commander - the best file manager ever made, possibly the best piece of software I’ve ever run, for 20+ years now. Ridiculously low price for a lifetime license, also shareware, always rock-solid. If you ever liked Norton Commander, Volkov Commander, Midnight Commander or the likes, this is for you!

[PaulPiko]

@LarsBjerregaard

Pro-tip for Windows users: Total Commander

I’ve been using it for decades too

[Interrobang (Jim Allman)]

Adding this here for other wanderers. On Mac OS (11.7.2 Big Sur), this will unpack a modern .vcv file into the current directory:

% tar --use-compress-program=unzstd -xvf {FILENAME}.vcv

…for example:

% tar --use-compress-program=unzstd -xvf template.vcv
x ./
x ./modules/
x ./patch.json
x ./modules/1878679374588749/
x ./modules/1878679374588749/wavetable.wav

[SkwareUawe (Andrea A.G. Grossi)]

@LarsBjerregaard

lifetime license

Ahem… I’ve been using Total Commander for ages now but the license is not lifetime. If you want to use the latest updates like 11 and higher, you have to renew your license if you come from 9.12 or lower.

I know because I got 9.12 and it requires me a new reg key if I want to upgrade to 11.01

[gc3 (gc)]

Altap Salamander is a great, and now free, option: Download - Altap Salamander File Manager

[LarsBjerregaard]

Not on my machine. I’ve been upgrading continuously using the same license which I bought upwards of 20 years ago or something like that.

Quoting from Total Commander - FAQ - Order and Total Commander - Order :

Q: What’s the price of an update from an older to the current version?
A: As soon as you are registered, (until further notice) all updates are free, provided that you get the latest version yourself by downloading it. This has been the case since version 1.0. Just install the new (Shareware) version over the old one. The only important thing is to keep the file wincmd.key.

[SkwareUawe (Andrea A.G. Grossi)]

Oof.

I was so wrong. So thank you for correcting me!

I messed up a bit with the *.reg file I have on the original CD. I copied that file on the 11 version and yeah… The license is actually valid.

The more you mistake, eh?