home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Software Vault: The Gold Collection
/
Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO
/
cdr31
/
arc2zip.zip
/
CONVERT.MAN
< prev
Wrap
Text File
|
1993-05-13
|
10KB
|
331 lines
CONVERT
Copyright (c) 1989 by Tony Kyle
All Rights Reserved
Released to Public Domain
March 1989
PKXARC, PKUNPAK and PKZIP are copyrighted and
Traded Marked by PKWare, Inc.
CONVERT (c) 1989 Page -2-
With PKWare's latest release, PKZIP and PKUNZIP, the users of
bulletin boards, and shareware in general, are left with a
problem. Do we take the immense task of converting from PKXARC
or PKPAK ARC formats to ZIP, or do we live with the possibility
of becoming obsolete. The process itself is not complicated.
Un-compress the files, one archive at a time, then convert to the
new format. Batch files can even be written to ease the pain and
boredom that results.
However, would it not be better and easier to be able to CONVERT
whole disks or sub-directories at a time? A program that could
be used with either PKXARC (tm) or PKUNPAK (tm). CONVERT is just
the program for this task.
After the lawsuit brought by SEA, Inc. against PKWare, Inc. in
Wisconsin this past summer (1988), it was not a question if
PKWare would change, or even when. That was all spelled out in
the out-of-court agreement reached by the two parties. All that
was left, is how is the average user going to be affected by the
change. In Oklahoma City, one BBS has started the process of
changing from ARCs to ZIPs. With 30 some odd disks in ARC
format, I did not relish the task of hand converting from one
format to the other. I wrote CONVERT to be used by anyone who
has a number of disks in the old format and desires to change to
the new format. I have converted all of my disks, and even files
on my hard drive using this program without experiencing any
problems from its use.
Before entrusting your entire collection of ARC files to CONVERT,
please take the time to test it on some practice disks. In other
words, copy a couple of your normal archive file disks to blank
floppies and then run CONVERT on them to ensure that the program
CONVERT (c) 1989 Page -3-
is working properly. There is always the possibility that the
program could have become garbled during the download process or
may just not work with your hardware/software combination.
CONVERT is a command line driven utility. I do not seek any
charges for use of the program. In other words, plain and
simple, IT'S FREE.
The programmer does not take any responsibility for losses or
damages brought about by the use of this program, either real or
punitive, loss of earnings, savings or any other losses that
could result from the careless or inappropriate use of this
software. This program is provided AS-IS, with no warranty
available to the end user. The user has and will bear sole
responsibility for the use of this program.
If there are problems, notify me, with a complete description of
your system, the hardware and software used, including version
numbers and what, if any error codes you receive, either from
your system or from the program. I will make every attempt to
reproduce the problems on my machine in order to correct any
program problems.
The program does not erase any files until the whole disk or sub-
directory is CONVERTed. If enough space is not provided on the
work drive, you could lose the files on the source
drive/directory. However, if you give it a sub-directory that is
either not present on the drive specified, or have mis-spelled
the directory's name, the program will abort without doing
anything.
As I stated earlier, the program is command-line driven. To use,
you would enter at the DOS prompt:
CONVERT # Drive:[\Sub-directory]
# is 1 for PKUNPAK
2 for PKXARC
(This is required)
Drive is the source drive for the archived files
(This is required)
Directory is the source directory, if any, for the
archived files
(This is optional)
The portion between the brackets ([..]) is optional. If you only
use the root directory of your drives, then you need not specify
a directory. However, if you use your hard drive like a file
cabinet, and each sub-directory is a folder, then you would
specify where CONVERT is to find the archived files for
processing. CONVERT will also place the processed files back
into the specified directory when it is done.
CONVERT (c) 1989 Page -4-
There are some program requirements that must be met before you
can properly utilize CONVERT.
The first is, the program creates two (2) sub-directories. One
is called FROMARC, the other TOZIP. If by chance, you have a
directory on your drive with these names, you will need to change
your directory's names before and while using CONVERT.
Second, the program creates two (2) small, temporary files called
TEMPCD and TEMP.DIR. TEMPCD is used to store the information
about the current directory. This is necessary for the program,
as CONVERT will return to the starting directory when it is
completed. TEMP.DIR is a file holding the directory listing of
the disk/directory being processed by the program. By using a
text file with the filenames stored in it, CONVERT can work
unattended.
Third, PKUNPAK (if you are using PKUNPAK), PKXARC (if you are
using PKXARC), and PKZIP (this is required) MUST be in the
pathway for your system.
Fourth, the hard drive memory requirements depend on the type of
disks you have your archives stored on. If your files are on the
hard drive, then you should allot an amount triple to the size of
the largest directory being CONVERTed. If you are using
floppies, then the space required on the hard drive is about
double to triple the amount of the floppy being used. For 360K
floppies, allot 1 meg of hard drive space. For 720K disks, allot
2 to 3 meg, and for 1.2 or 1.44 meg disks, allot 4 to 6 megabytes
of hard drive space. The reasons for the memory requirements are
simple. CONVERT does not write the processed file back to the
drive or directory, until all files have been processed. CONVERT
uses the directory, TOZIP, to store the processed files. After
the ARCed files have been processed, CONVERT erases all of the
files with the extension of ARC off of the source drive and/or
directory, then copies the ZIP files over. For exampled:
You use 360K disks for archived files. On the 360K
disk, you have used 280 or 300K. The largest file de-
compresses to 400K. The files, all ZIPed, account for
260 to 290K plus the space that was required to process
them, in this case approximately 400K for the largest
de-compressed file. Total space used would be 460 to
490K.
Some files take more, others less. However, by allowing for
extra space, you will avoid the heartache of receiving the
"Insufficient Memory", message, which could result in loss of
files. Again, I converted over 30 disks without a loss. I pack
my disks as tight as possible, leaving, in at least 2 cases, no
free space on the floppy.
CONVERT (c) 1989 Page -5-
When you convert, you will actually create some free space, as
the ZIP programs, with software switches already set by CONVERT,
will pack your files even tighter than PKARC could. The switches
are set for PKZIP as follows:
PKZIP -ea4 -eb4 -m
The "-ea4" and "-eb4" allow for the tighter compression. The "-
m" allows for the processed files to be "moved", so there is no
need to for CONVERT to delete these files. For more information,
you should probably read the documentation that comes with
PKWare's products. It gives a much fuller explanation than I
could possibly give.