Validation and repair

Purpose

This document explains how to validate archive integrity and repair corrupted archives using Cabriolet’s validation and repair tools.

Use this guide when you need to: * Verify archive integrity before processing * Detect corruption in archives * Recover files from damaged archives * Implement quality assurance workflows

References

Concepts

Validation Levels

Quick: Structure and magic bytes only (~0.1s) Standard: Includes checksum verification (~1s) Thorough: Full decompression test (~10s)

Salvage Mode

Attempts to recover files even when archive structure is damaged.

Repair vs. Salvage

Repair: Rebuilds archive with recovered files Salvage: Extracts recovered files to directory

Archive Validation

Quick Validation 

validator = Cabriolet::Validator.new('archive.cab', level: :quick)
report = validator.validate

puts "Valid: #{report.valid?}"
puts report.summary

Thorough Validation 

validator = Cabriolet::Validator.new('archive.cab', level: :thorough)
report = validator.validate

if report.valid?
  puts "✓ Archive fully validated"
else
  puts "✗ Errors found:"
  report.errors.each { |e| puts "  - #{e}" }
end

# Detailed report
puts report.detailed_report

Archive Repair

Repair Corrupted Archive 

repairer = Cabriolet::Repairer.new('corrupted.cab')

# Attempt repair
report = repairer.repair(output: 'repaired.cab')

if report.success?
  puts "✓ Repaired: #{report.stats[:recovered]} files recovered"
else
  puts "✗ Repair failed: #{report.error}"
end

Salvage Files 

repairer = Cabriolet::Repairer.new('damaged.cab')

# Salvage to directory
report = repairer.salvage(output_dir: 'recovered/')

puts report.summary
# => "Salvaged 140 files to recovered/, 5 failed"

Validation in CI/CD 

# Pre-deployment validation
validator = Cabriolet::Validator.new('release.cab', level: :thorough)
report = validator.validate

exit 1 unless report.valid?

# Deploy if valid
deploy_archive('release.cab')

See also

Bibliography

  • Archive Integrity Verification Best Practices

  • Data Recovery Techniques for Compressed Archives