ibmbin-request@crdgw1.crd.ge.com (04/01/91)
Checksum: 2878340011 (Verify with "brik -cv")
Posting-number: Volume 11, Issue %%%
Submitted-by: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP
Archive-name: admin/archives
[ Date of last change Feb-03-1991 ]
ALL ABOUT ARCHIVES, LZHS, ZIPS, ZOOS, LIBRARIES, and SQUEEZED FILES
Some of the files in the SIMTEL20 MS/PCDOS Software Libraries have
been transformed by using one or another of the standard public domain
utilities that either SQueezes, LiBRaries, ARChives, LZHs, ZIPs, or
ZOOs files.
This transformation is performed to compress the files to minimize
download time, and/or combine several related files into a single
easily-managed file. You cannot use or run any of these files without
first transforming them back to their original state.
These processed files are specially named with a file type (the last 3
letters of a file name after the '.') that signifies the transformation.
These are:
.ARC for files archived with PKPAK.EXE,
.LZH for files archived with LHARC.EXE,
.ZIP for files archived with PKZIP.EXE,
.ZOO for files archived with ZOO.EXE,
.LBR for files libraried with LU.EXE, and
.?Q? for squeezed files (middle letter is a Q).
ARC FILES
PKPAK is used to create and maintain file archives. An archive is a
group of files collected together into one file in such a way that the
individual files may be recovered intact. PKPAK will automatically
compress member files when adding them to the archive, and PKUNPAK
will expand them upon extraction. For files with the .ARC extension,
you must have a copy of file PD1:<MSDOS.ARC-LBR>PK361.EXE to extract
the component files. (PK361.EXE is a "self-extracting archive." When
you run this program, it will produce PKPAK, PKUNPAK and related
documentation). After you end up with a copy of PKUNPAK you can use
it to extract files. An example of using PKUNPAK to unpack an ARChive
"FILE.ARC" is:
"A>pkunpak file"
You do not need to supply the ARC file type when specifying "file."
LZH FILES
LHARC is used to create and maintain file archives. An archive is a
group of files collected together into one file in such a way that the
individual files may be recovered intact. LHARC will automatically
compress member files when adding them to the archive, and will expand
them upon extraction. For files with the .LZH extension, you must
have a copy of file PD1:<MSDOS.ARC-LBR>LH113C.EXE to extract the
component files. LH113C.EXE is a "self-extracting archive." When
you run this program, it will produce LHARC and related documentation.
After you end up with a copy of LHARC you can use it to extract files.
An example of using LHARC to unpack an LZH archive "FILE.LZH" is:
"A>lharc e file"
You do not need to supply the LZH file type when specifying "file."
ZIP FILES
PKZIP is used to create and maintain file archives. An archive is a
group of files collected together into one file in such a way that the
individual files may be recovered intact. PKZIP will automatically
compress member files when adding them to the archive, and PKUNZIP
will expand them upon extraction. For files with the .ZIP extension,
you must have a copy of file PD1:<MSDOS.ZIP>PKZ110EU.EXE to extract the
component files. (PKZ110EU.EXE is a "self-extracting archive." When
you run this program, it will produce PKZIP, PKUNZIP and related
documentation). After you end up with a copy of PKUNZIP you can use
it to extract files. An example of using PKUNZIP to unpack an archive
"FILE.ZIP" is:
"A>pkunzip file"
You do not need to supply the ZIP file type when specifying "file."
ZOO FILES
ZOO.EXE is an archiving program that is similar to PKPAK, but
non-compatible. ZOO can produce archives with long pathnames in them
(directory names as well as the file name) and it can store comments
about each file. If you want to take apart a ZOO archive, you will
need a copy of ZOO.EXE. Since it is a program in development, it's
hard to say what its file name will be when you read this, but
searching for ZOO*.* should turn up the correct file. When this
article was written the current version of ZOO was ZOO201.EXE, which
may be found in the PD1:<MSDOS.ZOO> directory. The zoo syntax for
file extraction is:
"A>zoo e file"
You do not need to supply the ZOO file type when specifying "file."
LBR FILES
LU and its relatives (LUP, LUU, LUE, LUT, LU86, LAR etc.), maintain
libraries of files. Most LU-type programs do not perform any
compression. Because of this, most people will squeeze files before
adding them to a library if they want to save space. If you want to
remove the component files from an .LBR file, you should have a copy
of file PD1:<MSDOS.STARTER>LUE220.COM. This will break up the library
into its component parts, and optionally unsqueeze any .?Q? files at
the same time. The syntax for LUE would be:
"A>lue220 file"
where file was really FILE.LBR.
LUU.COM can be used to create a .LBR file.
SQUEEZED FILES
NUSQ.COM is used to unsqueeze, or expand files that have a "Q" as the
middle letter of the file type. Such files have been squeezed, or
compressed with SQPC.COM or something similar. These programs use
Huffman Encoding to reduce the size of the target file. Depending on
the distribution of data in a file it can be reduced in size by 5% to
60% by squeezing it. If you download a file with a file type
indicating that it is squeezed, you will need file
PD1:<MSDOS.STARTER>NUSQ110.COM to expand it before you can use it.
The syntax to unsqueeze a file would be:
"A>nusq110 file.tqt"
where file.tqt was the file you wanted to unsqueeze. You must supply
the full file name and type.
MORE INFORMATION
For more information on ARChives, see the documentation for
PKPAK/PKUNPAK which is included in the PK361.EXE file. For more
information on LZH archives, see the documentation for LHARC which is
included in the LH113C.EXE file. For more information on ZIP
archives, see the documentation for PKZIP/PKUNZUP which is included in
the PKZ110EU.EXE file. For ZOO archives, see Rahul Dhesi's excellent
documentation included in ZOO201.EXE and UGUIDE.ZOO. The doc files
included with the various LU utilities will explain .LBR's, and
LUDEF5.DOC explains the layout of these files in detail.
-- Keith Petersen <w8sdz@WSMR-SIMTEL20.Army.Mil>ibmbin-request@crdgw1.crd.ge.com (05/01/91)
Checksum: 1851662610 (Verify with "brik -cv")
Posting-number: Volume 11, Issue %%%
Submitted-by: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP
Archive-name: admin/archives
[ Date of last change Feb-03-1991 ]
ALL ABOUT ARCHIVES, LZHS, ZIPS, ZOOS, LIBRARIES, and SQUEEZED FILES
Some of the files in the SIMTEL20 MS/PCDOS Software Libraries have
been transformed by using one or another of the standard public domain
utilities that either SQueezes, LiBRaries, ARChives, LZHs, ZIPs, or
ZOOs files.
This transformation is performed to compress the files to minimize
download time, and/or combine several related files into a single
easily-managed file. You cannot use or run any of these files without
first transforming them back to their original state.
These processed files are specially named with a file type (the last 3
letters of a file name after the '.') that signifies the transformation.
These are:
.ARC for files archived with PKPAK.EXE,
.LZH for files archived with LHARC.EXE,
.ZIP for files archived with PKZIP.EXE,
.ZOO for files archived with ZOO.EXE,
.LBR for files libraried with LU.EXE, and
.?Q? for squeezed files (middle letter is a Q).
ARC FILES
PKPAK is used to create and maintain file archives. An archive is a
group of files collected together into one file in such a way that the
individual files may be recovered intact. PKPAK will automatically
compress member files when adding them to the archive, and PKUNPAK
will expand them upon extraction. For files with the .ARC extension,
you must have a copy of file PD1:<MSDOS.ARC-LBR>PK361.EXE to extract
the component files. (PK361.EXE is a "self-extracting archive." When
you run this program, it will produce PKPAK, PKUNPAK and related
documentation). After you end up with a copy of PKUNPAK you can use
it to extract files. An example of using PKUNPAK to unpack an ARChive
"FILE.ARC" is:
"A>pkunpak file"
You do not need to supply the ARC file type when specifying "file."
LZH FILES
LHARC is used to create and maintain file archives. An archive is a
group of files collected together into one file in such a way that the
individual files may be recovered intact. LHARC will automatically
compress member files when adding them to the archive, and will expand
them upon extraction. For files with the .LZH extension, you must
have a copy of file PD1:<MSDOS.ARC-LBR>LH113C.EXE to extract the
component files. LH113C.EXE is a "self-extracting archive." When
you run this program, it will produce LHARC and related documentation.
After you end up with a copy of LHARC you can use it to extract files.
An example of using LHARC to unpack an LZH archive "FILE.LZH" is:
"A>lharc e file"
You do not need to supply the LZH file type when specifying "file."
ZIP FILES
PKZIP is used to create and maintain file archives. An archive is a
group of files collected together into one file in such a way that the
individual files may be recovered intact. PKZIP will automatically
compress member files when adding them to the archive, and PKUNZIP
will expand them upon extraction. For files with the .ZIP extension,
you must have a copy of file PD1:<MSDOS.ZIP>PKZ110EU.EXE to extract the
component files. (PKZ110EU.EXE is a "self-extracting archive." When
you run this program, it will produce PKZIP, PKUNZIP and related
documentation). After you end up with a copy of PKUNZIP you can use
it to extract files. An example of using PKUNZIP to unpack an archive
"FILE.ZIP" is:
"A>pkunzip file"
You do not need to supply the ZIP file type when specifying "file."
ZOO FILES
ZOO.EXE is an archiving program that is similar to PKPAK, but
non-compatible. ZOO can produce archives with long pathnames in them
(directory names as well as the file name) and it can store comments
about each file. If you want to take apart a ZOO archive, you will
need a copy of ZOO.EXE. Since it is a program in development, it's
hard to say what its file name will be when you read this, but
searching for ZOO*.* should turn up the correct file. When this
article was written the current version of ZOO was ZOO201.EXE, which
may be found in the PD1:<MSDOS.ZOO> directory. The zoo syntax for
file extraction is:
"A>zoo e file"
You do not need to supply the ZOO file type when specifying "file."
LBR FILES
LU and its relatives (LUP, LUU, LUE, LUT, LU86, LAR etc.), maintain
libraries of files. Most LU-type programs do not perform any
compression. Because of this, most people will squeeze files before
adding them to a library if they want to save space. If you want to
remove the component files from an .LBR file, you should have a copy
of file PD1:<MSDOS.STARTER>LUE220.COM. This will break up the library
into its component parts, and optionally unsqueeze any .?Q? files at
the same time. The syntax for LUE would be:
"A>lue220 file"
where file was really FILE.LBR.
LUU.COM can be used to create a .LBR file.
SQUEEZED FILES
NUSQ.COM is used to unsqueeze, or expand files that have a "Q" as the
middle letter of the file type. Such files have been squeezed, or
compressed with SQPC.COM or something similar. These programs use
Huffman Encoding to reduce the size of the target file. Depending on
the distribution of data in a file it can be reduced in size by 5% to
60% by squeezing it. If you download a file with a file type
indicating that it is squeezed, you will need file
PD1:<MSDOS.STARTER>NUSQ110.COM to expand it before you can use it.
The syntax to unsqueeze a file would be:
"A>nusq110 file.tqt"
where file.tqt was the file you wanted to unsqueeze. You must supply
the full file name and type.
MORE INFORMATION
For more information on ARChives, see the documentation for
PKPAK/PKUNPAK which is included in the PK361.EXE file. For more
information on LZH archives, see the documentation for LHARC which is
included in the LH113C.EXE file. For more information on ZIP
archives, see the documentation for PKZIP/PKUNZUP which is included in
the PKZ110EU.EXE file. For ZOO archives, see Rahul Dhesi's excellent
documentation included in ZOO201.EXE and UGUIDE.ZOO. The doc files
included with the various LU utilities will explain .LBR's, and
LUDEF5.DOC explains the layout of these files in detail.
-- Keith Petersen <w8sdz@WSMR-SIMTEL20.Army.Mil>ibmbin-request@crdgw1.crd.ge.com (06/15/91)
Checksum: 1405409408 (Verify with "brik -cv")
Posting-number: Volume 11, Issue inf07
Submitted-by: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP
Archive-name: admin/archives
[ Date of last change May-14-1991 ]
Note: versions of this have been sent to me by Keith Petersen
(w8sdz@wsmr-simtel20.army.mil) and Paul Homchick (paul@cgh.com), which
are so similar they are undoubtedly from a single source originally.
This is the latest combination of inputs.
________________________________________________________________
This transformation is performed to compress the files to minimize
download time, and/or combine several related files into a single
easily-managed file. You cannot use or run any of these files without
first transforming them back to their original state.
These processed files are specially named with a file type (the last 3
letters of a file name after the '.') that signifies the transformation.
These are:
.ARC for files archived with ARC.EXE,
.ZIP for files archived with PKZIP.EXE,
.LZH for files archived with LHARC.EXE,
.ZOO for files archived with ZOO.EXE,
.PAK for files archived with PAK.EXE,
.LBR for files libraried with LU.EXE, and
.?Q? for squeezed files (middle letter is a Q).
SQUEEZED FILES
NUSQ.COM is used to unsqueeze, or expand files that have a "Q" as the
middle letter of the file type. Such files have been squeezed, or
compressed with SQPC.COM or something similar. These programs use
Huffman Encoding to reduce the size of the target file. Depending on
the distribution of data in a file it can be reduced in size by 5% to
60% by squeezing it. If you download a file with a file type indicating
that it is squeezed, you will need file #43 NUSQ110.COM to expand it
before you can use it. Also, file #13099 LBR-SQ.ZOO contains both
the standard unsqueezer, and a LBR utility. The syntax to unsqueeze
a file would be:
"A>nusq110 file.tqt"
where file.tqt was the file you wanted to unsqueeze. You must supply
the full file name and type.
ARC FILES
ARC programs are used to create and maintain file archives. An archive
is a group of files collected together into one file in such a way that
the individual files may be recovered intact. The archive program will
automatically compress member files when adding them to the archive, and
will expand them upon extraction.
For files with the .ARC extension, you have your choice of several
programs to extract the component files: ARC602.EXE (file #13940) by
System Enhancement Associates (SEA) who are best known for popularizing
the ARC "standard"; ARCE40C.COM (file #13889)
is a faster but extraction-only program by Vern Buerg.
ARC602.EXE is a "self-extracting archive." When you run the program
it will produce ARC.EXE and it's related documentation). After you
end up with a copy of ARC.EXE, you can use it to extract files.
To use ARC.EXE to extract files from an .ARC file use:
"A>arc e file"
to use ARCE40C.COM, the syntax is:
"A>arce40C file"
You do not need to supply the ARC file type when specifying "file."
LZH FILES
LZH files come from the LHARC program which comes to us from Japan.
There are computer networks in Japan, just as there are here in the
U.S. One big difference, however, is that the most interesting
software there is being written by hobbiests. LHARC is written by
a Japanese doctor, who gives it away absolutely free. It is amazingly
small, and does the best job of compression of any of the current
crop of archivers. It has some very nice features, too, such as
progress reporting, and some nice self-extracting file features. The
current version of LHARC is #22125 LHA211.EXE. The syntax to extract
files from an LZH file is:
"A>lha x file"
If you are using version LH113C of LHARC and you receive a message
about "unknow method" it is because version 2 and above have added a
new, tighter, compression scheme. You should upgrade to version 2.0
or higher to work with the file.
PAK FILES
PAK files are produced by NoGate Consulting's PAK program. This program
is shareware, and provides many features. The current version is #20529
PAK251.EXE. The extraction syntax for PAK files is:
"A>pak e file"
ZOO FILES
ZOO.EXE is a archiving program that is similar to the ARC-programs in
function, but is non-compatible with .ARC files. Zoo is popular with
users that must access multiple machines because it is very portable
and has been ported to a variety of platforms. ZOO can produce
ARCHIVES with long pathnames in them (directory names as well as the
file name) and it can store comments about each file. Besides that, it
is one of the two only FREE professional-quality file archiver. If you
want to take apart a ZOO archive, you will need a copy of ZOO.EXE.
Since it is a program in development, it's hard to say what it's file
number will be when you read this, but searching the library for the
'ZOO' keyword, with uploader of R.DHESI should turn up the correct
file. (When this article was written the current version of ZOO was
ZOO201.EXE, file #14646 in the library; ZOO201.EXE is a
self-extracting zoo-archive containing both the program and the
documentation). The zoo syntax for file extraction is similar to that
of arc:
"A>zoo e file"
ZIP FILES
ZIP files are produced by Phil Katz's PKZIP program and can be taken
apart by PKUNZIP as well as a number of public domain un-ZIPpers.
ZIP is a new program and uses the newest technology. It is has
a great many features and is very fast. It is shareware. The
current version of the ZIP software can be found in #17862
PKZ110.EXE. The syntax for file extraction with ZIP is:
"A>pkunzip file"
If pkuzip gives you a message similar to "WARNING! I don't know
how to handle FILE," then you are probably using version 0.92 on
a ZIP file that was created with version 1.01. Downloading the
newer version of ZIP will solve the problem.
LBR FILES
LU and its relatives (LUP, LUU, LUE, LUT, LU86, LAR etc.), maintain
libraries of files. Most LU-type programs do not perform any
compression. Because of this, most people will squeeze files before
adding them to a library if they want to save space. If you want to
remove the component files from an .LBR file, you should have a copy of
file #960 LUE220.COM. This will break up the library into its component
parts, and optionally unsqueeze any .?Q? files at the same time. The
syntax for LUE would be:
"A>lue220 file"
where file was really FILE.LBR.
LUU.COM can be used to create a .LBR file.
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ARCHIVES
For more information on ARChives, see the documentation for ARC which is
included in the ARC602.EXE file. For ZOO archives, see Rahul Dhesi's
excellent documentation including ZOOPLAN1.ARC. The doc files included
with the various LU utilities will explain .LBR's, and LUDEF5.DOC explains
the layout of these files in detail.
GIF FILES
Finally, there is a class of files with a .GIF file type. GIF stands
for Graphic Interchange Format, and is commonly used to store graphical
(picture) images. All of these files require that a special program be
used to display them on your computer's screen, and there are many such
programs (and pictures) in the "Imaging, Graphics, and Drawing" section
of the IBM PC RoundTable Software Library.
MORE INFORMATION (SIMTEL20)
For more information on ARChives, see the documentation for
PKPAK/PKUNPAK which is included in the PK361.EXE file. For more
information on LZH archives, see the documentation for LHA which is
included in the LH212.EXE file. For more information on ZIP
archives, see the documentation for PKZIP/PKUNZUP which is included in
the PKZ110EU.EXE file. For ZOO archives, see Rahul Dhesi's excellent
documentation included in ZOO201.EXE and UGUIDE.ZOO. The doc files
included with the various LU utilities will explain .LBR's, and
LUDEF5.DOC explains the layout of these files in detail.
-- Keith Petersen <w8sdz@WSMR-SIMTEL20.Army.Mil>
MORE INFORMATION (GENIE)
Because new viewing programs are frequently being uploaded by RoundTable
members, any list of viewing programs is almost guaranteed to be out of
date, but a representative sample at the time this is being written is:
PICEM.ARC (file #15208) for Hercules/EGA/VGA
FASTGIF.ARC (file #8793) for EGA/VGA only
VGIF40.ARC (file #16330) for VGA only
VPIC40.ZIP File #21951) for EGA/VGA
GIFDE32A.ZIP (file #21199) for VGA only
VUIMG.ZIP (file #21357) for HERC/CGA/EGA/VGA/SVGA
CSHOWA.LZH (file #22134) for HERC/CGA/EGA/VGA
(doc, file #22135)
The current collection of viewers can be found by searching the Software
Library on keywords such as GIF or VIEW.
- Paul Homchick, GEnie IBM RoundTable 11/30/87
last updated 03/17/