[comp.compression] Decompression problem with LZW

baihelp@rigel.tamu.edu (Ignatow, Bryan A.) (04/23/91)

We have a file that was created under VAX/VMS using a utility that has become
lost during our VAXCluster mearge 6 months ago.

The utility was a LZ or LZW compression derivative.  We have tried to
decompress the file using Compress (a V4.0 compression utility which is fully
Unix complient) and the LZCOMP/LZDCMP utilities provided on the DECUS tapes 
(both the VMS V4.x and VMS 5.x versions).

The format of the file look very similar.  Here are the first 20 bytes of the 
file:

    1A7E9000 00000000 0001FF00 00000202 0000054A

With a few minor differences this looks very much like the Unix compatable 
compress and the LZCOMP/LZDCMP versions.

Does anyone know what happened to this file, and how it was compressed (ie. what 
does this file header tell me)?  Also, we are certain that the file was not
corrupted since me have seen several dozen of these beasties from several 
different users.

Any help would be appreciated.

  Bryan A. Ignatow                   Bitnet:    baihelp@tamrigel
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