Provided by: par2_0.8.1-3_amd64 bug

NAME

       par2 - PAR 2.0 compatible file verification and repair tool.

SYNOPSIS

       par2 c|v|r [options] <PAR2 file> [files]

       par2 c(reate) [options] <PAR2 file> [files]
       par2 v(erify) [options] <PAR2 file> [files]
       par2 r(epair) [options] <PAR2 file> [files]

       Also:
       par2create [options] <PAR2 file> [files]
       par2verify [options] <PAR2 file> [files]
       par2repair [options] <PAR2 file> [files]

DESCRIPTION

       par2cmdline  is a program for creating and using PAR2 files to detect damage in data files
       and repair them if necessary. It can be used with any kind of file.

OPTIONS

       -h     Show this help

       -V     Show version

       -VV    Show version and copyright

       -a <file>
              Set the main PAR2 archive name; required on create, optional for verify and repair

       -b<n>  Set the Block‐Count

       -s<n>  Set the Block‐Size (don't use both -b and -s)

       -r<n>  Level of redundancy (percentage)

       -r<c><n>
              Redundancy target size, <c>=g(iga),m(ega),k(ilo) bytes

       -c<n>  Recovery block count (don't use both -r and -c)

       -f<n>  First Recovery‐Block‐Number

       -u     Uniform recovery file sizes

       -l     Limit size of recovery files (don't use both -u and -l)

       -n<n>  Number of recovery files (don't use both -n and -l)

       -m<n>  Memory (in MB) to use

       -t<n>  Number of threads used for main processing (auto-detected)

       -T<n>  Number of files hashed in parallel (during file verification and creation stages, 2
              default)

       -v [-v]
              Be more verbose

       -q [-q]
              Be more quiet (-qq gives silence)

       -p     Purge  backup  files  and  par  files on successful recovery or when no recovery is
              needed

       -R     Recurse into subdirectories (only useful on create)

       -N     data skipping (find badly mispositioned data blocks)

       -S<n>  Skip leaway (distance +/- from expected block position)

       -B<path>
              Set the basepath to use as reference for the datafiles

       --     Treat all following arguments as filenames

EXAMPLES

       With PAR 2.0 you can create PAR2 recovery files for as few as 1 or as many as 32768 files.
       If  you wanted to create PAR1 recovery files for a single file you are forced to split the
       file into muliple parts and RAR is frequently used for this purpose. You do  NOT  need  to
       split files with PAR 2.0.

       To  create PAR 2 recovery files for a single data file (e.g. one called test.mpg), you can
       use the following command:

         par2 create test.mpg

       If test.mpg is an 800 MB file, then this will create a total of  8  PAR2  files  with  the
       following filenames (taking roughly 6 minutes on a PC with a 1500MHz CPU):

         test.mpg.par2      - This is an index file for verification only
         test.mpg.vol00+01.par2 - Recovery file with 1 recovery block
         test.mpg.vol01+02.par2 - Recovery file with 2 recovery blocks
         test.mpg.vol03+04.par2 - Recovery file with 4 recovery blocks
         test.mpg.vol07+08.par2 - Recovery file with 8 recovery blocks
         test.mpg.vol15+16.par2 - Recovery file with 16 recovery blocks
         test.mpg.vol31+32.par2 - Recovery file with 32 recovery blocks
         test.mpg.vol63+37.par2 - Recovery file with 37 recovery blocks

       The test.mpg.par2 file is 39 KB in size and the other files vary in size from 443 KB to 15
       MB. These par2 files will enable the recovery of up to 100 errors totalling 40 MB of  lost
       or  damaged  data from the original test.mpg file when it and the par2 files are posted on
       UseNet. When posting on UseNet it is recommended that you use the "-s"  option  to  set  a
       blocksize  that  is  equal to the Article size that you will use to post the data file. If
       you wanted to post the test.mpg file using an article size of 300 KB then the command  you
       would type is:

         par2 create -s307200 test.mpg

       This  will  create 9 PAR2 files instead of 8, and they will be capable of correcting up to
       134 errors totalling 40 MB. It will take roughly 8 minutes to create  the  recovery  files
       this  time. In both of these two examples, the total quantity of recovery data created was
       40 MB (which is 5% of 800 MB). If you wish to create  a  greater  or  lesser  quantity  of
       recovery  data,  you  can  use the "-r" option. To create 10% recovery data instead of the
       default of 5% and also to use a block size of 300 KB, you would use the following command:

         par2 create -s307200 -r10 test.mpg

       This would also create 9 PAR2 files, but they would be able to correct up  to  269  errors
       totalling  80  MB.  Since  twice  as  much recovery data is created, it will take about 16
       minutes to do so with a 1500MHz CPU. The "-u" and "-n" options  can  be  used  to  control
       exactly  how  many  recovery files are created and how the recovery blocks are distributed
       amoungst them. They do not affect the total quantity of recovery data  created.  The  "-f"
       option  is used when you create additional recovery data. e.g. If you have already created
       10% and want another 5% then you migh use the following command:

         par2 create -s307200 -r5 -f300 test.mpg

       This specifies the same block size (which is a requirement for additional recovery files),
       5% recovery data, and a first block number of 300.

       The  "-m"  option  controls  how  much  memory  par2 uses. It defaults to 16 MB unless you
       override it.

       CREATING PAR2 FILES FOR MULTIPLE DATA FILES

       When creating PAR2 recovery files form multiple data files,  you  must  specify  the  base
       filename to use for the par2 files and the names of all of the data files. If test.mpg had
       been split into multiple RAR files, then you could use:

         par2 create test.mpg.rar.par2 test.mpg.part*.rar

       The files filename "test.mpg.rar.par2" says what you want the par2 files to be called  and
       "test.mpg.part*.rar" should select all of the RAR files.

       VERIFYING AND REPAIRING

       When  using  par2  recovery  files to verify or repair the data files from which they were
       created, you only need to specify the filename of one of  the  par2  files  to  par2.  For
       example:

         par2 verify test.mpg.par2

       This  tells  par2  to  use the information in test.mpg.par2 to verify the data files. Par2
       will automatically search for  the  other  par2  files  that  were  created  and  use  the
       information they contain to determine the filenames of the original data files and then to
       verify them.  If all of the data files are ok, then par2 will report that repair will  not
       be required. If any of the data files are missing or damaged, par2 will report the details
       of what it has found. If the recovery files contain enough recovery blocks to  repair  the
       damage,  you  will be told that repair is possible. Otherwise you will be told exactly how
       many recovery blocks will be required in order to repair. To carry out a  repair  use  the
       following command:

         par2 repair test.mpg.par2

       This tells par2 to verify and if possible repair any damaged or missing files. If a repair
       is carried out, then each file which is repaired will be re-verified to confirm  that  the
       repair was successful.

       MISSNAMED AND INCOMPLETE DATA FILES

       If  any  of  the  recovery files or data files have the wrong filename, then par2 will not
       automatically find and scan them. To have par2 scan such files, you must include  them  on
       the command line when attempting to verify or repair; e.g.:

         par2 r test.mpg.par2 other.mpg

       This tells par2 to scan the file called other.mpg to see if it contains any data belonging
       to the original data files. If one of the extra files specified in this way  is  an  exact
       match  for  a  data  file, then the repair process will rename the file so that it has the
       correct filename. Because par2 is designed to be able to find good data within  a  damaged
       file,  it  can  do  the  same with incomplete files downloaded from UseNet. If some of the
       articles for a file are missing, you should still download the file and save  it  to  disk
       for  par2  to  scan. If you do this then you may find that you can carry out a repair in a
       situation where you would not otherwise have sufficient recovery data. You can  have  par2
       scan all files that are in the current directory using a command such as:

         par2 r test.mpg.par2 *

       WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU ARE TOLD YOU NEED MORE RECOVERY BLOCKS

       If  par2 determines that any of the data files are damaged or missing and finds that there
       is insufficient recovery data to effect a repair, you will be told that you need a certain
       number  of recovery blocks. You can obtain these by downloading additional recovery files.
       In order to make things easy, par2 files have filenames that tell  you  exactly  how  many
       recovery  blocks each one contains. Assuming that the following command was used to create
       recovery data:

         par2 c -b1000 -r5 test.mpg

       Then the recovery files that are created would be called:

         test.mpg.par2
         test.mpg.vol00+01.par2
         test.mpg.vol01+02.par2
         test.mpg.vol03+04.par2
         test.mpg.vol07+08.par2
         test.mpg.vol15+16.par2
         test.mpg.vol31+19.par2

       The first file in this  list  does  not  contain  any  recovery  data,  it  only  contains
       information  sufficient  to  verify  the  data  files.  Each of the other files contains a
       different number of recovery blocks. The number after  the  '+'  sign  is  the  number  of
       recovery  blocks  and  the  number preceding the '+' sign is the block number of the first
       recovery block in that file. If par2 told you that you needed 10 recovery blocks, then you
       would  need  "test.mpg.vol01+02.par2"  and  "test.mpg.vol07+08.par".  You  might of course
       choose to fetch "test.mpg.vol15+16.par2" instead (in which case you would have an extra  6
       recovery blocks which would not be used for the repair).

       HASHING

       Hashing  portion (file verification and creation stages) of the code can't be parallelized
       without processing multiple files simultaneously. The 2  file/thread  default  is  a  good
       choice  for HDDs, using more threads can result in worse performance. Four or more threads
       can be used for better performance with SSDs.

AUTHORS

       Peter Brian Clements <peterbclements@users.sourceforge.net>
       Marcel Partap <mpartap@gmx.net>
       Ike Devolder <ike.devolder@gmail.com>
       Jussi Kansanen <jussi.kansanen@gmail.com>