Archive files opened with Vim are unreadable, even with zip plugins installed

Question

I am trying to open archive files in Vim (zip files, jar files), but they are unreadable when opened.

For example, I created a zip file with one file in it:

$ touch testfile.txt
$ zip test.zip testfile.txt
  adding: testfile.txt (stored 0%)

Then I tried to open it via vim test.zip, but it is mostly unreadable with strange characters:

PK^C^D
^@^@^@^@^@▒M~JO^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^L^@^\^@testfile.txtUT   ^@^C^U▒▒]^U▒▒]ux^K^@^A^Dd}R^@^Dd^@^@^@PK^A^B^^^C
^@^@^@^@^@▒M~JO^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^L^@^X^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@▒~A^@^@^@^@testfile.txtUT^E^@^C^U▒▒]ux^K^@^A^Dd}R^@^Dd^@^@^@PK^E^F^@^@^@^@^A^@^A^@R^@^@^@F^@^@^@^@^@

When I type :scriptnames, I can see zipPlugin.vim and zip.vim:

  1: /etc/vimrc
  2: /usr/share/vim/vim74/syntax/syntax.vim
  3: /usr/share/vim/vim74/syntax/synload.vim
  4: /usr/share/vim/vim74/syntax/syncolor.vim
  5: /usr/share/vim/vim74/filetype.vim
  6: /usr/share/vim/vim74/ftplugin.vim
  7: /usr/share/vim/vim74/plugin/getscriptPlugin.vim
  8: /usr/share/vim/vim74/plugin/gzip.vim
  9: /usr/share/vim/vim74/plugin/matchparen.vim
 10: /usr/share/vim/vim74/plugin/netrwPlugin.vim
 11: /usr/share/vim/vim74/plugin/rrhelper.vim
 12: /usr/share/vim/vim74/plugin/spellfile.vim
 13: /usr/share/vim/vim74/plugin/tarPlugin.vim
 14: /usr/share/vim/vim74/plugin/tohtml.vim
 15: /usr/share/vim/vim74/plugin/vimballPlugin.vim
 16: /usr/share/vim/vim74/plugin/zipPlugin.vim
 17: /usr/share/vim/vim74/autoload/zip.vim
 18: /usr/share/vim/vim74/syntax/tar.vim

And this is the output of :messages:

Messages maintainer: Bram Moolenaar <Bram@vim.org>
"~/tes/test.zip" [noeol] 3L, 174C

Here is my vim version:

$ vim --version
VIM - Vi IMproved 7.4 (2013 Aug 10, compiled Jul 18 2019 16:14:10)
Included patches: 1-207, 209-629
Modified by <bugzilla@redhat.com>
Compiled by <bugzilla@redhat.com>
Huge version without GUI.  Features included (+) or not (-):
+acl             +farsi           +mouse_netterm   +syntax
+arabic          +file_in_path    +mouse_sgr       +tag_binary
+autocmd         +find_in_path    -mouse_sysmouse  +tag_old_static
-balloon_eval    +float           +mouse_urxvt     -tag_any_white
-browse          +folding         +mouse_xterm     -tcl
++builtin_terms  -footer          +multi_byte      +terminfo
+byte_offset     +fork()          +multi_lang      +termresponse
+cindent         +gettext         -mzscheme        +textobjects
-clientserver    -hangul_input    +netbeans_intg   +title
-clipboard       +iconv           +path_extra      -toolbar
+cmdline_compl   +insert_expand   +perl            +user_commands
+cmdline_hist    +jumplist        +persistent_undo +vertsplit
+cmdline_info    +keymap          +postscript      +virtualedit
+comments        +langmap         +printer         +visual
+conceal         +libcall         +profile         +visualextra
+cryptv          +linebreak       +python/dyn      +viminfo
+cscope          +lispindent      -python3         +vreplace
+cursorbind      +listcmds        +quickfix        +wildignore
+cursorshape     +localmap        +reltime         +wildmenu
+dialog_con      -lua             +rightleft       +windows
+diff            +menu            -ruby            +writebackup
+digraphs        +mksession       +scrollbind      -X11
-dnd             +modify_fname    +signs           -xfontset
-ebcdic          +mouse           +smartindent     -xim
+emacs_tags      -mouseshape      -sniff           -xsmp
+eval            +mouse_dec       +startuptime     -xterm_clipboard
+ex_extra        +mouse_gpm       +statusline      -xterm_save
+extra_search    -mouse_jsbterm   -sun_workshop    -xpm
   system vimrc file: "/etc/vimrc"
     user vimrc file: "$HOME/.vimrc"
 2nd user vimrc file: "~/.vim/vimrc"
      user exrc file: "$HOME/.exrc"
  fall-back for $VIM: "/etc"
 f-b for $VIMRUNTIME: "/usr/share/vim/vim74"
Compilation: gcc -c -I. -Iproto -DHAVE_CONFIG_H     -O2 -g -pipe -Wall -fexceptions -fstack-protector --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -m64 -mtune=generic -D_GNU_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -U_FORTIFY_SOURCE -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=1
Linking: gcc   -Wl,-E -Wl,-rpath,/usr/lib64/perl5/CORE   -L/usr/local/lib -Wl,--as-needed -o vim        -lm -lnsl  -lselinux  -ltinfo -lacl -lattr -lgpm   -Wl,-E -Wl,-rpath,/usr/lib64/perl5/CORE  -fstack-protector  -L/usr/lib64/perl5/CORE -lperl -lresolv -lnsl -ldl -lm -lcrypt -lutil -lpthread -lc

I haven't made any changes to the default settings, and I don't have a ~/.vimrc file.

unzip is also installed:

$ unzip
UnZip 6.00 of 20 April 2009, by Info-ZIP.

Why are archive files unreadable? What other settings can I check?

Answer 1

This was caused by my umask setting in my ~/.bashrc. It was set to 133:

$ umask
0133

I set it to 033 and it fixed the issue:

$ umask 033
$ umask
0033
$ vim test.zip

" zip.vim version v27
" Browsing zipfile /home/badjr/tes/test.zip
" Select a file with cursor and press ENTER

testfile.txt

Not sure how that particular umask was affecting this, but the difference in 0 and 1 in umask is that 0 has directory permission rwx as opposed to 1 having rw-.