[comp.sys.amiga] LZ bugs

honp9@jetson.uh.edu (Jason L. Tibbitts III) (09/22/90)

In article <1095@tau.sm.luth.se>, d88-mbe@sm.luth.se (Michael Bergman) writes:
> joseph@valnet.UUCP (Joseph P. Hillenburg) writes:
> (on Jerry Whitmans request, my comment)
> 
> 
>>Ok....here's a simple chart:
> [ stuff deleted... ]
> 
>>LHArcA    | .LZH      | *****  | Use mouse to (de)archive .LZH files.
>>LZ        | .LZH      | ****   | REAL FAST and VERY BUGGY.
> 
> What do you mean "very buggy"??? Don't scare people away like that before
> you know for sure what you're talking about!
> 
I've had LZ 0.90 for a while now, and have used it extensively.  There ARE
bugs.  I will detail those whick I have found below.

When compressing a file, of the compressed version ends up larger than the
original, that file in the archive will be corrupted.  This can happen when you
compact a file already compressed, say with PowerPacker.  It seems that LZ
intends to insert the original into the archive (it sets the compression type
to -lz0-) but somehow part of the compressed version gets inserted.  Bang, the
file is corrupted.  If you delete your original file, or were moving files into
the archive, you just lost the file.

LZ doesn't handle corrupt dates properly.  Check Ovaug.LZH in /incoming/amiga
on abcfd20.larc.nasa.gov for an example of a file with corrupt dates.  LHArc
will set the date and the time to all zeros.  LZ will get the date right, but
writes unholy garbage into the timestamp.  This can crash some dirutils, or
cause your files to be invisible.
(Personally, I believt both programs should just set the date and time to the
current values and go on about their merry ways.)

The only other misfeature I can find is that the archive sizes sometimes come
out a couple of bytes different than otherwise identical archives produced by
LHArc.  (But this is in the LZ documentation.)

Also, an omission.  You can't uncompress to standard output.  So I can't print
a compressed file from whin the program.  Annoying, that's all.  LHArc does it.

> FYI (for your information :-) the author of LZ an Lhunarc is the same guy.
> And yes, I know that LZ crashes if your stack is too small. If you set
> your stack to, say 15000 or so, it *never* crashes. This stack problem is
> the only problem *I've* experienced with LZ and is easily fixed.

Well, there are other bugs.

> Use it - it's fast. And I mean fast!

That it is.  I still use it (I just use the t option liberally.)

>       Michael Bergman         Internet: d88-mbe@sm.luth.se
---
\/ Jason L. Tibbitts III     // | THEnet: {George|Jane|Elroy|Judy}::HONP9
/\/"Blob Shop Programmers:  //  | SesquiNet, Telnet, etc: HONP9@JETSON.uh.edu
\/  Because We're Bored!" \X/   | CREN (BitNet): HONP9@UHVAX1   "Ewige
/\ . DISCLAIMER ." Whose opinions did you think there were?" ;   Blumenkraft"