[comp.sys.amiga] .Binaries vs .Sources postings

mikes@lakesys.lakesys.com (Mike Shawaluk) (10/29/89)

In article <5145@cps3xx.UUCP> porkka@frith.egr.msu.edu () writes:
>I hope nobody takes offence, but here are the missing helpfiles. They
>were misplaced by "zoo" because of identical filenames in different
>directories.

Okay, this isn't really related to HyperHelp specifically, but it's just an
observation concerning "shar" file postings, and/or a request for help, or
whatever.  Anyways, the host I am on is running XENIX/386, which is a System
V variant, and thus can only deal with filenames that are 14 characters or
less in length.  The impact this has on me relates to the way I normally deal
with shar files, which is to (a) unshar them, (b) uudecode the .uu files
within them, if necessary, (c) put them together into a compressed file
collection, via a program like ZOO or ZIP or whatever (currently ZOO, until
there is a UN*X version of PKZIP), and (d) download the compressed file to my
Amiga, and decompress the archive.  The problem with this approach is that
often the members in a shar file will have names that are longer than 14
characters, so that the names get truncated on the UN*X host before they get
compressed/archived, and I have to manually rename them after taking them
apart on the Amiga after downloading.  However, if a file has been posted in
the .zuu format (uuencoded .zoo file), then the filenames are fine, since all
I have to do is (a) unshar the .zux pieces, if it is a multipart posting, (b)
cat the pieces together and uudecode into a .zoo file (usually done as: "cat
filename.zu? | uudecode"), and (c) download the .zoo file.

Now, I guess my question is, has anyone come up with a way of getting the
members of a shar file into a .zoo (or other) archive, using the appropriate
filename (i.e., not truncated), so it will have the right name?  Or maybe my
question should be, is there any reason why the postings to .binaries are
done differently than .sources?  Is uuencoding a .zoo file more or less
efficient than the plain text in the .zoo file? (and all of the overhead in
the shar file between each of the shar members)?

Thanks for listening.
-- 
   - Mike Shawaluk             
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