ARJ for OS/2 version 2.61 Release Notes November, 21, 1998 This product is an OS/2-hosted add-on for ARJ 2.60 and 2.61 for DOS. It may be used separately from the DOS package but it doesn't contain the documentation and other files found in DOS release. *********************************************************************** *** *** *** THIS PRODUCT IS DEVELOPED SEPARATELY FROM THE MAINSTREAM ARJ *** *** PACKAGE AND THEREFORE IS NOT UPDATED SYNCHRONOUSLY WITH ARJ *** *** FOR DOS. SHAREWARE REGISTRATION FOR ARJ/2 IS NOT PROVIDED BY *** *** ARJ SOFTWARE, INC. *** *** *** *********************************************************************** LEGAL NOTICE Since this is a beta version, no warranties of any kind are made. In no event should ARJ Software Russia be liable for any damage resulting from use or misuse of this product. You have a royalty-free right to distribute ARJ/2 package in any form. Commercial use of this product must be approved by ARJ Software, Inc. The information in this document is a subject to change without notice. INTRODUCTION As the OS/2 lacks a multifunctional compression utility, a version of ARJ for OS/2 has been developed by ARJ Software Russia. The aim of the porting was to retain the functionality and compatibility with ARJ for DOS but several exceptions occur. They are covered later in this document. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS * OS/2 version 1.2 or higher. This product will NOT run under Windows NT. * A 80286 or higher CPU. * 512K of memory is needed for operation. DIFFERENCES WITH THE DOS VERSION ("-" indicates a missing feature, "*" - a different operation and "+" stands for a feature unique to ARJ/2) - The -$ option (volume label handling) is disabled. You still can process any archives which contain volume labels but you can't set or query a volume label for a drive. - The "+" option has no effect under OS/2. To conserve memory, we pass only the COMPSEC and ARJ_SW environment variables to ARJ functions. - The GOST 28147-89 encryption procedure, provided with ARJCRYPT.COM utility, is not available in OS/2 version. You can use "-hg!" option under OS/2, however. - Spaces in long filename specifications on the command line are not permitted. - ANSI [2J command (CLS) is not supported in ARJ/2. * ANSI pictures in comments are shown 80 columns wide. This is mainly for compatibility reasons, as many of OS/2 users prefer video modes other than 80x25, while DOS usually stays in 80 columns. * ARJ/2 sets the "Host OS" to "OS/2" on its archives. When extracting any such archive with ARJ for DOS, some unusual behavior may occur. Versions of ARJ prior to 2.50 convert high-ASCII characters in filenames to 7-bit characters by ignoring the high bit. So, the filename "ąTESTą" will be converted to "1TEST1" on extraction. ARJ/DOS also strips high bit from archive comments, but only if the archive was created by ARJ/2. Archives created with ARJ/DOS and then processed under OS/2 are not affected. * ARJ/2 uses the default OS/2 error handler that will normally display pop-up menus prompting for action. The -& option is not effective in ARJ/2. Moreover, the ampersand character is used in OS/2 to start two processes consequently, so this switch will actually split the command line. * ARJSFX and ARJSFXJR archives will display ANSI sequences if the ANSI support is enabled in the current OS/2 session (it's enabled by default in OS/2). + The new "-h2d" option will force the stamping of "MS-DOS" as host operating system for the archives created by ARJ/2. It may be used for compatibility, to avoid "binary file from another OS" warnings. + "-h2p" can be used to set the priority of ARJ/2. The knowledge of OS/2 scheduling system is required to use this option. It can dramatically increase performance but slow down other processes. The can be equal to 1, 2, 3 or 4: 1 = idle-time priority 2 = regular priority 3 = time-critical priority 4 = fixed-high priority Priority delta values are not supported. We don't see a strong requirement for them. + The "-h2a" option is implemented in ARJ/2 due to a popular demand from FidoNet system operators. Basically it acts like "-jo", with the exception that file names, and not the extensions, are "serialized". Consider having a file called "FILE995N.TXT" and an archive that contains the same file. If extracted with the "-h2a" option, the file will be written to to "FILE9950.TXT", if you extract it again, it'll be called "FILE9951.TXT", and so on up to "FILE9959.TXT", then "FILE9960.TXT". And after "FILE9999.TXT" ARJ/2 will start with "FIL00000.TXT". This option allows you to extract one file to 100000000 unique names. It's essential to system operators since multiple mail packets with the same name may come from different systems. NOTES: 1. It'll be wise to include this option in the script that unpacks the ARCmail packets and NOT in ARJ_SW environment variable. This option is a security measure for systems running in unattended mode, and will only confuse you if enabled by default. 2. There's a security hole: a file called "9999.XXX" or so, will not be overwritten. However, all subsequent writes will be redirected into file "0000.XXX". So, files with 9s in the beginning have less chances of being preserved. Hopefully such situation is unlikely for FidoNet systems. + ARJ/2 has no shareware volume size limitation for ARJSFXV archives, because the self-extractor itself consumes a lot of disk space. + ARJSFXJR does not support long filenames under Win95 DOS. ARJSFXJR in ARJ/2 supports OS/2 long filenames. PRODUCT INFORMATION ARJ/2 has been developed by ARJ Software Russia with the most of original ARJ code left intact. It has been briefly tested on OS/2 Warp versions 3.0 and 4.0. The ARJ/2 development team: Programmed by Andrew Belov Testing lead by Viatcheslav Odintsov Source code is not available for public use. REVISION HISTORY (only general availability versions are listed) 2.61.10 21/11/1998 Initial release. End of document