rmpinchback@crocus.waterloo.edu (Reid M. Pinchback) (08/08/88)
> >By the way, the documentation mentions that it is possible to reduce the >size of the MSVIBM.EXE file by 15K using a program called EXEPACK. Is >EXEPACK a public-domain program? I would like to reduce the size of the >file to shorten its loading time. > > >-Ed L Along the same lines, I remember at various times in the MS-DOS history seeing references to techniques for modifying .COM and .EXE files so that they would load faster (apart from making them smaller so that they load faster due to reduced file size). Does anybody out there in netland know anything about this? Reid
16012_3045@uwovax.uwo.ca (Paul Gomme) (08/08/88)
In article <6240@chinet.chi.il.us>, edlee@chinet.chi.il.us (Edward Lee) writes: > By the way, the documentation mentions that it is possible to reduce the > size of the MSVIBM.EXE file by 15K using a program called EXEPACK. Is > EXEPACK a public-domain program? I would like to reduce the size of the > file to shorten its loading time. I have a program called EXEPACK which came with MASM 5.1. I suspect that it's a Microsoft program which comes with all of their (major) compilers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paul Gomme E-Mail: Department of Economics University of Western Ontario Bitnet: p.gomme@uwovax.bitnet London, Ontario, Canada p.gomme@uwovax.uwo.ca N6A 5B7 ARPA: p.gomme@uwo.ca (519) 679-2111 ext. 6418
wew@naucse.UUCP (Bill Wilson) (08/09/88)
Exepack is a program that is supplied with all of the languages
that I have seen from Microsoft. It is a compression utility
that deletes sequences of identical characters from an executable
file. It also optimizes the relocation table that can also make
execution time faster. I have tried it out on a number of large
programs (200 K range) and it has worked just fine (and saved up
to 15 K per file). If you can get a copy try it out.
--
Bill Wilson (Bitnet: ucc2wew@nauvm)
Northern AZ Univ
Flagstaff, AZ 86011
{These views are mine and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer}edlee@chinet.chi.il.us (Edward Lee) (08/10/88)
In article <548@uwovax.uwo.ca> 16012_3045@uwovax.uwo.ca (Paul Gomme) writes: > > I have a program called EXEPACK which came with MASM 5.1. I suspect >that it's a Microsoft program which comes with all of their (major) compilers. Okay, so I suppose that EXEPACK is not a public-domain program. Does anyone out there have a compressed version of MSVIBM.EXE, the IBM-specific version of Kermit, that they could mail to me? Better yet, is there a public-domain program that creates working, compressed *.EXE files that can be mailed to me or to comp.binaries.ibm.pc? -Ed L
schuster@dasys1.UUCP (Michael Schuster) (08/10/88)
In article <8159@watdragon.waterloo.edu> writes: > >By the way, the documentation mentions that it is possible to reduce the >size of the MSVIBM.EXE file by 15K using a program called EXEPACK. Is >EXEPACK a public-domain program? I would like to reduce the size of the >file to shorten its loading time. EXEPACK is copyrighted software from Microsoft. It is included in their Macro Assembler package, and may be bundled with other products too; I'm not sure. There is a shareware cruncher called SCRNCH which is available on CompuServe and GEnie. It will do EXE to COM conversions and back, as well as pretty impressive packing using a proprietary algorithm. It's very slow tho (10 minutes to pack a 32K file, running on a hard disk and 20 mHz 386 machine with math chip). -- l\ /l' _ Mike Schuster {sun!hoptoad,cmcl2!phri}!dasys1!schuster l \/ lll/(_ Big Electric Cat schuster@dasys1.UUCP l lll\(_ New York, NY USA DELPHI,GEnie:MSCHUSTER CIS:70346,1745
simcha@humming.UUCP (Simcha Lerner) (08/10/88)
In article <830@naucse.UUCP> wew@naucse.UUCP (Bill Wilson) writes: >Exepack is a program that is supplied with all of the languages >that I have seen from Microsoft. It is a compression utility >that deletes sequences of identical characters from an executable >file. It also optimizes the relocation table that can also make >execution time faster. >-- >Bill Wilson (Bitnet: ucc2wew@nauvm) >Northern AZ Univ >Flagstaff, AZ 86011 >{These views are mine and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer} Sorry, but there is nothing that will make your program execute faster except compiling with a better compiler or running on a faster computer. The main saving of exepack is to save _disk_space_ by making the disk image smaller. As mentioned before, this is done by compressing out runs of uninitiated data space and the like. There is controversy on whether this speeds up load time or not. EXEPACK inserts a unpacker that becomes the entry point of the program. This unpacking process takes a finite amount of time that otherwise would not take place in an unpacked version of the program. The ratio of the time saved from loading a smaller file vs. unpacking to original offsets is quite variable from my experience. By the way - some versions of exepack (maybe all?) seem to count on the 8086 1MB memory wrap-around behaviour (which is emulated on AT class machines by gating the A20 line in real mode) for unpacking, and complain loudly (about a "corrupted packed file") if the wrap-around is not taking place. In my opinion, don't bother with exepack unless you really need to save the disk space (eg: it's going onto a floppy). Simcha Lerner ...harvard!humming!simcha All opinions are my own...although you are welcome to share them.
toma@tekgvs.GVS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy) (08/10/88)
In article <830@naucse.UUCP> wew@naucse.UUCP (Bill Wilson) writes: >Exepack is a program that is supplied with all of the languages >that I have seen from Microsoft. [...] >I have tried it out on a number of large >programs (200 K range) and it has worked just fine (and saved up >to 15 K per file). I would like to point out three things: 1. Exepack is not guarenteed to work with all programs (especially non Microsoft compiled languages), and can, in fact, produce an exe file that will not execute! 2. Once you pack the file, you cannot use a debugger on it. 3. The linkers supplied with Microsoft languages have an option switch to do the packing, which eliminates the separate exepack step. Tom Almy toma@tekgvs.TEK.COM Standard disclaimers apply...