OS/2 Shareware BBS: 9 Archive/09-Archive.zip/unzip52.zip/vms/unzipsfx.hlp

Text File | 1994-08-11 | 10KB | 234 lines

1 UNZIPSFX

     unzipsfx  -  self-extracting  stub  for  prepending  to  ZIP
     archives

     <name  of  unzipsfx+archive   combo>   [-cfptuz[ajnoqsCLV$]]
     [file(s) ...] [-x xfile(s) ...]

     unzipsfx is a modified version of unzip designed  to  be
     prepended  to  existing  ZIP archives in order to form self-
     extracting archives.  Instead of taking its  first  non-flag
     argument  to  be  the  zipfile(s)  to be extracted, unzipsfx
     seeks itself under the name by  which  it  was  invoked  and
     tests  or  extracts  the  contents  of the appended archive.
     Because the executable stub adds bulk to  the  archive  (the
     whole  purpose  of  which  is to be as small as possible), a
     number of the regular version's less-vital capabilities have
     been  removed.   Among these are the usage (or help) screen,
     the listing and diagnostic functions (-l and -v), the  abil-
     ity to decompress older compression formats (the ``reduce,''
     ``shrink'' and ``implode''  methods),  and  the  ability  to
     extract  to a directory other than the current one.  Decryp-
     tion is supported as a compile-time  option  but  should  be
     avoided  unless  the  attached  archive  contains  encrypted
     files.

     Note that self-extracting archives made with unzipsfx are no
     more  (or  less) portable across different operating systems
     than is the unzip executable itself.   In  general  a  self-
     extracting  archive  made  on  a particular Unix system, for
     example, will only self-extract under  the  same  flavor  of
     Unix.  Regular unzip may still be used to extract the embed-
     ded archive as with any normal  zipfile,  although  it  will
     generate  a harmless warning about extra bytes at the begin-
     ning of the zipfile.



[file(s)]

          An optional list of archive members  to  be  processed.
          Regular  expressions  (wildcards)  similar  to those in
          Unix egrep(1) may be used to  match  multiple  members.
          These wildcards may contain:

          *    matches a sequence of 0 or more characters

          ?    matches exactly 1 character

          [...]
               matches any  single  character  found  inside  the
               brackets;  ranges  are  specified  by  a beginning
               character, a hyphen, and an ending character.   If
               an  exclamation point or a caret (`!' or `^') fol-
               lows the left bracket, then the range  of  charac-
               ters within the brackets is complemented (that is,
               anything except the characters inside the brackets
               is considered a match).

          (Be sure to quote any character which  might  otherwise
          be  interpreted  or  modified  by the operating system,
          particularly under Unix and VMS.)

[-x xfile(s)]

          An optional list of archive members to be excluded from
          processing.   Since wildcard characters match directory
          separators (`/'), this option may be  used  to  exclude
          any  files  which  are in subdirectories.  For example,
          ``unzip foo *.[ch] -x */*'' would extract all C  source
          files  in the main directory, but none in any subdirec-
          tories.  Without the -x option, all C source  files  in
          all directories within the zipfile would be extracted.

2 Options

     unzipsfx supports the following unzip options:   -c  and
     -p  (extract  to standard output/screen), -f and -u (freshen
     and  update  existing  files  upon  extraction),  -t   (test
     archive) and -z (print archive comment).  All normal listing
     options (-l, -v and -Z) have been removed, but  the  testing
     option (-t) may be used as a ``poor man's'' listing.  Alter-
     natively, those creating self-extracting archives  may  wish
     to include a short listing in the zipfile comment.

     See unzip for  a  more  complete  description  of  these
     options.

     MODIFIERS

     unzipsfx currently supports  all  unzip  modifiers:   -a
     (convert  text  files),  -n (never overwrite), -o (overwrite
     without prompting), -q (operate quietly),  -C  (match  names
     case-insenstively), -L (convert uppercase-OS names to lower-
     case), -j (junk paths) and -V (retain version numbers); plus
     the   following   operating-system   specific  options:   -X
     (restore VMS owner/protection info), -s (convert  spaces  in
     filenames  to  underscores  [DOS, OS/2, NT]) and -$ (restore
     volume label [DOS, OS/2, NT, Amiga]).

     (Support for regular ASCII text-conversion may be removed in
     future versions, since it is simple enough for the archive's
     creator to ensure that text files have the appropriate  for-
     mat for the local OS.  EBCDIC conversion will of course con-
     tinue to be supported since the zipfile format implies ASCII
     storage of text files.)

     See unzip for  a  more  complete  description  of  these
     modifiers.

2 Environment_options

     unzipsfx uses the same environment  variables  as  unzip
     does,  although  this  is likely to be an issue only for the
     person creating and  testing  the  self-extracting  archive.
     See unzip for details.

2 Decryption

     Decryption is supported exactly as in  unzip;  that  is,
     interactively with a non-echoing prompt for the password(s).
     See unzip for details.  Once again,  note  that  if  the
     archive  has  no encrypted files there is no reason to use a
     version of unzipsfx with decryption support; that only  adds
     to the size of the archive.

2 Examples

     To create a self-extracting archive letters from  a  regular
     zipfile letters.zip and change the new archive's permissions
     to be world-executable under Unix:

         cat unzipsfx letters.zip > letters
         chmod 755 letters

     To create the same archive under MS-DOS, OS/2  or  NT  (note
     the use of the /b [binary] option to the copy command):

         copy /b unzipsfx.exe+letters.zip letters.exe

     Under VMS:

         copy unzipsfx.exe,letters.zip letters.exe
         letters == "$currentdisk:[currentdir]letters.exe"

     (The VMS append command may also be used.  The  second  com-
     mand installs the new program as a ``foreign command'' capa-
     ble of taking  arguments.)  To  test  (or  list)  the  newly
     created self-extracting archive:

         letters -t

     To test letters quietly, printing  only  a  summary  message
     indicating whether the archive is OK or not:

         letters -tq

     To extract the complete contents into the current directory,
     recreating all files and subdirectories as necessary:

         letters

     To extract only the README  file  to  standard  output  (the
     screen):

         letters -c README

     To print only the zipfile comment:

         letters -z

2 Limitations

     The principle and fundamental limitation of unzipsfx is that
     it  is  not  portable across architectures or operating sys-
     tems, and therefore neither are the resulting archives.  For
     some  architectures  there  is  limited portability, however
     (e.g., between some flavors of Intel-based Unix).

     unzipsfx has no knowledge of the user's PATH, so in  general
     an  archive  must either be in the current directory when it
     is invoked, or else a full or relative path must  be  given.
     If  a  user attempts to extract the archive from a directory
     in the PATH other than the current one, unzipsfx will  print
     a  warning  to  the  effect, ``can't find myself.''  This is
     always true under Unix and may be true in some  cases  under
     MS-DOS,  depending  on  the compiler used (Microsoft C fully
     qualifies the program name, but other  compilers  may  not).
     Under OS/2 and NT there are operating-system calls available
     which provide the full path name,  so  the  archive  may  be
     invoked  from anywhere in the user's path.  The situation is
     not known for Atari TOS, MacOS, etc.

     As noted above, a number of the normal  unzip  functions
     have  been removed in order to make unzipsfx smaller:  usage
     and diagnostic info, listing  functions  and  extraction  to
     other directories.  Also, only stored and deflated files are
     supported.  The latter  limitation  is  mainly  relevant  to
     those who create SFX archives, however.

     VMS users must know how to set up  self-extracting  archives
     as  foreign  commands  in  order  to  use  any of unzipsfx's
     options.  This is not necessary for simple  extraction,  but
     the command to do so then becomes, e.g., ``run letters'' (to
     continue the examples given above).

     unzipsfx is not supported on the Amiga because  of  the  way
     the  loader  works;  the  entire  archive  contents would be
     loaded into memory by default.  It may be possible  to  work
     around this by defining the attached archive to be a ``debug
     hunk,'' but compatibility problems between the ROM levels of
     older  Amigas  and  newer  ones are likely to cause problems
     regardless.

     All current bugs in unzip exist in unzipsfx as well.

2 Diagnostics

     unzipsfx's exit status (error level) is identical to that of
     unzip; see the corresponding man page.

2 See_also

     funzip, unzip, zip,  zipcloak,  zipgrep,
     zipinfo, zipnote, zipsplit

2 Authors

     Greg Roelofs was responsible for the basic modifications  to
     UnZip  necessary  to create UnZipSFX.  See unzip for the
     current list of zip-bugs authors, or the  file  CONTRIBS  in
     the  UnZip source distribution for the full list of Info-ZIP
     contributors.