ts@uwasa.fi (Timo Salmi) (12/06/90)
In article <43729@cci632.UUCP> pjb@ccird7.UUCP (Phil Busardo) writes: > >Would someone be kind enough to explain what a .ZOO file is what >to do with it. > >New To The Net, no flames, just help. Since similar questions land too regularly on a moderator's desk I'll post. This is a exctract from /pc/ts/tsfaq14.arc (available by anonymous ftp from uwasa.fi archives). You also asked for no flames. I'll nevertheless give here pieces of friendly general advice. When one is new to the net, one should first take some time to scan the old news (in several groups) since many common questions may have been recently answered. Do this first, then ask. I'm not saying this for the current question in particular, rather in general. Another piece of net lore. When one poses a question, one ought to use a descriptive subject. Don't put in something like "help needed" or "information requested". It decreases your changes of getting your message read. (Also old hands sometimes forget this basic tenet.) 13. ***** Q1: What is this file with this .zip (.arc, .lzh, .pak. .zoo) extension? What am I supposed to do to it? Q2: I can't run this file I got with a .zip extension. A: This is a total beginner's question, but never mind. One is supposed to start from somewhere. These files with a .zip (.arc, .lzh, .pak. .zoo) are compressed collections of files. You are not supposed to run a compressed entity (often also called an archive). You are supposed to unpack it first to extract the files from within the package. For this you need the relevant (un)packing program. You can find them in the /pc/pd2 and /pc/arcers directories at the anonymous ftp site uwasa.fi, or at practically any fine bulletin board. (After you have gotten them, they are very easy to process, since most often these utilities are self-extracting). At the time of writing this we have eg arc602.exe SEA's packing/unpacking system. lh114b.exe Dense compression from Japan, (hacked?) version lh113de.exe Latest attested version for .lzh compression pak250.exe NoGate (un)packing for .pak and .arc files pk361.exe This packed and unpacked .arc files fast pkz110eu.exe PKZIP/PKUNZIP "Euroversion" with no encryption zoo201.exe Zoo packing/unpacking facility from Rahul Dhesi Once you are well familiar with unpacking and packing, there is an excellent shell for running these utilities. It is called SHEZ and is in version /pc/pd2/shez59.zip at the time I wrote this item. Another advanced feature once you get the hang of this, is that (most of) these are available in the Unix environment, as well. See the /unix/ts directory at uwasa.fi for the Unix versions. 5. ***** Q: How do I extract from comp.binaries.ibm.pc binary postings? A1: 1) One handy trick to download multi-part postings from the binaries to your Unix host is the following. Use rn (read news) to store the posting in ~/News/Comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d. (It must be empty when you commence). Then apply automatic combining and uudecoding: combine Comp.binaries.ibm.pc You will end up with the .zoo package on your Unix host. 2) If you don't already have the combine program, you can create it yourself: #! /bin/sh cat $* | sed '/^END/,/^BEGIN/d' | uudecode (As posted e.g. by otto@jyu.fi there are even simpler alternatives but also this does the trick). Make the script executable by applying chmod u+x combine 3) After you have the (.zoo) package on your Unix host, the rest is what should be familiar routine. Transfer the package to your PC remembering to use the binary option in the transfer (this goes at least for Kermit and Z-Modem). Then extract the files from the package by using ZOO or LOOZ for PCs. If you are not familiar with these steps, and have problems, contact a knowledgeable PC friend near you. (My PD2ANS.TXT instructions file has some more information.) A2: Alternatively, stand by until the periodic posting of the UseNet CBIP Starter's Kit in comp.binaries.ibm.pc. The kit (release 1.5) contains: Instructions BASIC source to create UUDECODE.COM DEBUG script to create UUDECODE.COM C source for UUDECODE LOOZ 2.12, ZOO extractor, in uuencoded form ................................................................... Prof. Timo Salmi (Moderating at anon. ftp site 128.214.12.3) School of Business Studies, University of Vaasa, SF-65101, Finland Internet: ts@chyde.uwasa.fi Funet: gado::salmi Bitnet: salmi@finfun