{{Redir, Binary spanning, the mathematical optimization method, Binary splitting
File spanning is the ability to package a single file or data stream into separate files of a specified size. This task implies the ability to re-combine the package files back into the original file or data stream.
This is useful when saving large files onto smaller volumes or breaking large files up into smaller files for network messages of limited size (email, newsgroups). It also allows the creation of parity files such as
parchive
Parchive (a portmanteau of parity archive, and formally known as Parity Volume Set Specification) is an erasure code system that produces par files for checksum verification of data integrity, with the capability to perform data recovery operatio ...
(PAR) to verify and restore missing or corrupted package files. Another advantage with this is coping with file size limits on some file systems of removable media, or coping with volume size limits of things like
floppy disks
A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...
.
Sometimes the file spanning process is hidden as a secondary operation such as with
file archiver
In computing, a file archiver is utility software that combines computer file, files into a single archive file or in less common cases, multiple files.
A minimally designed archiver might concatenate the content of files along with file file n ...
s. In this case, many smaller files are first packaged into a data stream and then repackaged into a multi-file archive.
File spanning software
Many file spanning utilities are available for nearly every OS and platform. Below are a few examples:
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PKZip
PKZIP is a file archiving computer program
A computer program is a sequence or set of instructions in a programming language for a computer to Execution (computing), execute. It is one component of software, which also includes softwar ...
/
WinZip
WinZip is a trialware file archiver and data compression, compressor for Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS and Android (operating system), Android. It is developed by WinZip Computing (formerly Nico Mak Computing), which is owned by Alludo. The p ...
WinRAR
WinRAR is a trialware file archiver utility, developed by Eugene Roshal of win.rar GmbH. It can create and view archives in RAR or ZIP file formats, and unpack numerous archive file formats. To enable the user to test the integrity of archive ...
* PAR/
Parchive
Parchive (a portmanteau of parity archive, and formally known as Parity Volume Set Specification) is an erasure code system that produces par files for checksum verification of data integrity, with the capability to perform data recovery operatio ...