Not unraring after repairs!

[AimHere]

Okay, this is beginning to drive me nuts. Frequently, when Alt.binz needs to repair a set of files, it will not unrar it after the repair. It continues downloading other queued files and unraring them, but never starts unraring the "repaired" ones.

On the PAR2 tab, the PARs in question all have the yellow icon with the red cross, and the status "Repair successful". If I expand the PAR2s, the program shows one or more items highlighted with pink backgrounds. Some small bit of the set (usually an .nfo or .sfv or other small file) was missing from the download. This explains why alt.binz thinks it needs to do a repair, and I can understand this completely. But if the repair was successful, why doesn't Alt.binz unrar the .rar files???

I scoured the log file, and the sequence of events goes like this:

• File X needs 1 (or more) blocks, N blocks available
• File X Unpaused 1 blocks
• (one or more .par2s download)
• Repairing file X
• File X repair started
• File X repair successful

... and then nothing further happens, no matter how much time passes. Even if all downloads finish and the download connection idles, unraring simply doesn't happen.

Here's the thing: The log file also shows other NZBs for which a repair was needed. The difference is, THOSE PAR2s show on the PAR2 tab with green icons and the status "Unraring 100%". If I expand them, NO files have pink backgrounds (all are green). The log shows that the files were unrared successfully.

So why does Alt.bin SAY "repair successful" on both the PAR2 tab and in the log, yet leave some files highlighted in pink (missing parts) when expanded on the PAR2 tab? Shouldn't the program change their backgrounds to GREEN if the repair was "successful"? (The "Par2 checking, repairing & Unraring" forum post implies that a successfully-repaired set should be all-green. See the last screenshot in the post, and to quote, "After repair was successful unraring will start and after successful unraring we will see something like picture above.")

And why doesn't it unpack the .rar files when the .rar files aren't missing ANY parts? Why should a missing .sfv or .nfo matter for the unraring process? Isn't there a way to FORCE Alt.binz to always unrar if the .rar archive is complete?

[AimHere]

Okay, after some experimentation, I discovered the following: if alt.binz is set (on NZB#2 Options) to "import as paused" things like NZB or NFO files, and the person who posted a set of files included one of those files as part of the PAR2 (e.g. "file.nfo" is listed on the PAR2 tab if you expand the PAR2 item), then alt.binz will not unrar that file set, ever. On the PAR2 tab, the NFO file remains colored pink and shows "0/1 blocks"... all of the RAR/Rxx files are green. The only thing missing is the NFO file. And because it's missing, alt.binz thinks the file set cannot be repaired or unrared.

If I flip over to the Download Queue tab, find the NFO file and unpause it, alt.binz downloads it; then I flip back to PAR2, and I see the NFO turn green in the list, and alt.binz almost instantly starts unraring the archive.

Again, I have to ask, WHY is alt.binz not unraring when the RAR files themselves are complete? Isn't it smart enough to realize I don't NEED the NFO file to unrar? Could the program maybe be modified to ignore missing NFOs and other auxiliary files when checking and repairing RAR sets? It seems silly that such a small thing completely destroys the automatic download-repair-unrar process.

I guess I'm just going to have to leave the "import as paused" options unchecked for everything but sample and par2 recovery files, if I want my downloads to succeed...

[Rdl]

Setup->Par2->Unimportant files in par2 set

[AimHere]

Setup->Par2->Unimportant files in par2 set

Ahh... missed that. "*.nfo" was listed there, but it was not checked for some reason. Thanks.

[Hecks]

Actually, repair should add the missing NFO etc even if you don't have that option checked and there are enough par2s, so there must be some other issue there with those posts.

P.S. Alt.Binz is known to work better when you permanently disable caps, italics, bold and underline keys. Proved by SCIENCE.