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Text File | 1995-10-26 | 22KB | 541 lines

____________________________ _________ ***** ****** ****** * ***** __________________________ * * ** * * * _________________ ** * *** * ****** ________________ * * ** * * _____________ ***** * ****** * * ______________________ STZip version 2.1 (c) Vincent Pomey 1990, 1991, 1992 ************** * 0 - Prolog * ************** STZip is a program that allows you to compress and decompress files, i.e. to reduce their lengths. You saves space on your disks and reduce the transmission time if you send the files by modem. It also allows you to group several files in one single file, whose extension in general is ZIP. STZip uses files that are compatible with PKZip 1.93 on the IBM PC, and the Unix Info-Zip programs Zip 1.9/Unzip 5.2. It will probably be compatible with the up-coming version 2.0 of PKZIP. You can and are encouraged to copy, distribute and put this program for download on bulletin boards. Commercial use is not authorized without agreement. Use this program at your own risk, I do not provide any warranty about it. Please avoid to "repackage" STZip, I prefer than the users gets all the files originally in the distribution. This is postcardware, if you use it, please send a nice postcard to Vincent Pomey 2 allée Valéry Larbaud 92260 Fontenay aux roses - France I inform registered users of new versions if they supply an E-mail address. Thanks to all users who were kind enough to register ! The program is written in Modula-2 and assembler. For information on the file-format, see APPNOTE.TXT distributed with PKZip. I can be contacted via electronic mail : Fido : Vincent Pomey (2:320/100.2) Email : vincent@stell.fr.mugnet.org or vincent@stell.gna.org (unreliable) As you will probably see if you read this doc, I'm not a good technical writer... Sorry for that ! ----oooOooo--- There are several ways to use STZip: - double-clicking STZIP.PRG, using the GEM-interface - installing it as an application in the desktop: click once on STZIP.PRG, choose from the Desktop's menus the entry "Install Application," type ZIP and confirm. After this, you may save the desktop. Now, to use ZIP you only have to double-click a file with the extension .ZIP en you will find yourself in STZip, with GEM interface for using that file. - renaming STZIP.PRG to STZIP.TTP and using it with a command line. - from a command line interpreter or external program, also using a command line. The usage with the GEM interface is the easiest. Certain options are available only in GEM (the comments for example), while others are only present with command-line usage (e.g. excluding files from compression). ********************************* * I - Usage with a command line * ********************************* The usage of STZip with a command line is similar to that of ARC or LHArc on the Atari, or PKZip on the PC. 1 - A Table ------------ +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | The syntax is of the form: | | | | STZip command {options} [path] zipfile {file} | | | | | | There has to be one single command: | | | | -a add files | | -d delete files | | -f freshen: update files in the zip-file | | -u update: add new files and freshen the ones already | | present in the zip-file | | -x extract files | | -s extract compressed files on the screen | | -c check the zipfile | | -v list of the files with info | | -l list of the files, just with their names | | -? a bit of help | | | | | | You can also add a few options: | | | | -o overwrite a file without asking for confirmation | | if the file already exists | | -r `recursive compression: all the files in the | | sub-directories you selected will also be compressed. | | `recursive decompression: files compressed from sub- | | directories will be decompressed in the corresponding | | folders, which will be created if they don't exist. | | -p store pathname: the pathname of the file you have | | specified in the command line is stored in the zip; | | automatic with recursive compression | | -m move file: files are deleted after compression | | -t the date of the .zip file will be that of the file | | compressed with the most recent date. | | -z modify the general comment for the zip file | | -i dir put the files to be compressed in the subdirectory | | DIR in the zipfile | | -g extract the file FFF.ZIP in the directory FFF | | -w pw encrypt the files to be added using pw as password | | or use pw to decrypt the files to be extracted | | -nmmddyy add only the files newer than mm/dd/yy (US date format)| | -h wait for keypress before terminating the program | | -e specifies the compression method: | | -es store, no compression | | -eh shrink, quick compression | | -ei implode, default | | -ed deflate, better compression | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ Note that you can use the -z option alone, without any command. STZip will only ask you for the new comment of the file. 2 - The command line -------------------- You can specify the folder that is to be used as a default for all operations after the commands and the options: for example d:\texts\. Note the \ at the end. Following that, the name of the zipfile, that will contain (or already contains) compressed files, must be specified. The extension .ZIP is the default. You may use wildcards for the zipfile (but be sure that your shell doesn't expand them because it won't work) : all the matching zipfiles will be processed . e.g. stzip -xg *.zip this will extract all the zip files in their directory or stzip -z *.zip <comment.txt this will change the zip comments for all the zipfiles. (note that -z may now be used alone, without any action switch). After all this, you put the list of files to be processed (i.e.: to be deleted, compressed or decompressed). It may be a directory name (without trailing \), all files inside that directory will be processed. You may use the wildcards ? and * in the names of files: ? represents any single character * represents a string of characters Not specifying any file names is the same as *.* (all files). 3 - External list ----------------- If a name begins with a @, it means that that file contains a list of files to be treated. If you have a file list.txt containing for example: *.mod zip*.txt file1.vdt then stzip -a burp @list.txt is equivalent to stzip -a burp *.mod zip*.txt file1.vdt stzip -a burp @ will read the names of the file from stdin (generally keyboard). 4 - Excluding files -------------------- If a name begins with a ~, it means that it is NOT to be added. It is solely of interest when one uses wildcards; for example, to compress all files except .BAK, you have to use something like this: stzip -a burp *.* ~*.bak 5 - Odds & Ends --------------- An external list may contains another external list, but not ~ file names. The ~ file names of the command line are valid for all files, including the ones read from external lists. Matching wildcards goes MS-DOS style, not the Unix way: *.* matches all files, and not only those that have a . in their name. Paths using '..' are not supported. The -p switch: if you run stzip -ap burp folder\alt.txt, the name of the file in the zip will be folder\alt.txt, while without the -p switch, it would have been alt.txt. The -p switch is automatically invoked during recursive compression. 6 - Recursive compression ------------------------- If you have entered the -r option for compression, an important thing will happen: the files you specify will also be searched for in all sub-directories below you. The second attempt at explaining will be based on examples, the first one being incomprehensible without several hours of meditation topped off with a bunch of aspirins. An important thing to note is that if STZip doesn't do want you want, either compression or extraction, that's probably because you have forgotten to add the -r switch. (In order to better understand the second attempt, remember that folders do not actually exist within a zip-file. It's the path of the files (stored in the .zip) that contains the names of the folders) fld is a folder. ...\ stands for any quantity of folders, or even none. * stzip -ar burp All the files in the current folder will be compressed, including sub-directories. * stzip -ar burp fld The files fld\...\*.* will be compressed. The name fld\...\*.* is stored in the zip file. To recap: all the files in fld are compressed, including all the subdirectories found in fld. * stzip -ar burp fld\*.txt The files fld\...\*.txt will be compressed. The names fld\...\*.txt are stored in the zip file. To recap: all the files with the extension txt in fld are compressed, including all those found in the subdirectories found in fld. * stzip -ar burp fld\file.txt The files fld\...\file.txt will be compressed. The names fld\...\file.txt are stored in the zip file. To recap: all the files with the name file.txt in fld are compressed, including all those found in the subdirectories found in fld. * stzip -ar burp c:\fld The files c:\fld\...\*.* will be compressed. The names \...\*.* are stored in the zip file. This means that c:\fld\ will NOT be stored as part of the file names of the compressed files, because it is a COMPLETE path, different from fld\. Also, by using the changing of the working directory (of the kind stzip -ar burp c:\fld1\ fld2\*.txt) it is possible to perform all sorts of complex manipulations with the names of the files to be compressed. In the above example, the files with the extension txt in c:\fld1\fld2 will be compressed, but their names in the zip-file will be fld2\*.txt. No tests are performed EVER on the names of folders. stzip -ar burp *.txt will search in all directories, not only in those with the extension txt! Some Unix-style shells perform themselves the substitutions of the wildcards. STZip does not respond similarly to 'stzip -ar burp fld\a.txt fld\b.txt' and 'stzip -ar burp fld\*.txt' even though for the shell this may be the same. In this case, it is therefore necessary to add quotation marks to fld\*.txt so that the shell will not substitute the wildcards. Likewise, the ~ character may pose problems. 7 - Recursive decompression --------------------------- If a zip file contains folders, there are two possibilities: - ignore them and decompress to the current working directory (which is the default). This allows for the quick decompression of a specific file without creating lots of folders. - or decompress the files to these folders and create the folders when necessary. For this, use option -r. You can always add paths and use wildcards in the filenames. If you specify in the parameters a name with a path, for example infra\*.msg, then all *.msg files in infra AND in its subdirectories will be extracted. 8 - Comments ------------ The global comment for the entire zip file (changed with the -z switch) is displayed every time the zipfile is accessed. In Gem, it is also possible to have a comment for each files in the zipfile, it is displayed when the file is extracted. ******************************** * II - Using the GEM interface * ******************************** 1 - General ----------- The general algorithm is to select files on the disk selector and then click on the "Compress" button if you want to compress files, and select files on the zipfile selector and then click on the "Extract" button if you want to extract files. If you click on the "Compress" or "Extract" button without having selected any files, STZip will suggest you to process all the files. You may unselect the files by clicking on the "Select: 000" button (it shows the number of selected files). To change the zipfile, click on the close-box of the Zip file selector. The "Recurse Subdirs" button: during compression, if it is selected, then all subdirectories will also be compressed. during decompression, if it is selected, then all files will be extracted to their original directory : DIR\FILE.TXT will be extracted in directory DIR (created if it doesn't exist). If not selected, DIR\FILE.TXT will be extracted as FILE.TXT, in the current directory. 2 - Informations/Comments/Display a file ---------------------------------------- To get information about the entire zip file, you have to double-click on name of the zip file. Similarly, you may get information about a specific file in the zip or on the disk by double-clicking on its name. Information about the zipfile and the compression files contains some comments, and you may edit them. Zipfile comments are displayed whenever accessing the zipfile, while comments specific to a compressed file is displayed when extracting this file. The comments are saved on disk when you change the zipfile or when you quit STZip. This results in some disk access. While looking the information of a disk file, you may rename it. While looking the information of a file (compressed or on disk), you will be able to Display it (by clicking on the Trash button, uhh no, the Display button). Then, a few keys are available : keys : Move the text Clr-Home : Goto beginning of the file Shift-Clr-Home : Goto end of the file Ctrl-V : Copy the file on the clipboard Ctrl-S : Save the file (will display a fileselector) Ctrl-C : Change the font or the font-size used Ctrl-F : Search a string Ctrl-N : Search same string ESC : Quit the display mode It is also possible to get a menus with those options by pressing the HELP key. 3 - Configuration ----------------- The Configuration dialog box lets you choose the compression method, the sort method for the Zip selector and the Disk selector, The configuration file contains all those choice, plus the current disk path and list field (the mask for the compressed files to be listed). ***************************** * III - Third part of the doc ***************************** 1 - Compression method ---------------------- The best compression method is _deflating_, but at that time it is not "officially" supported by PKZIP. Only a public alpha version of PKZIP (v1.93) support it. PKZIP 2.0 should be released soon and will support that method. For these reasons, the default method is _imploding_, which is compatible with every ZIP processing program. This will probably change in the future since Zip programs handling the "deflating" method are now officialy available for Unix and Amigas. The deflating method has three variants : one that compress faster but not so good, one medium, and one which compress best but slowly. There are buttons to select the one you want in Gem (Config dialog box). Using a command line, -edf gives you the fast one, -edb the best one, and -ed the medium. _Shrinking_ is an very fast compression method, but not as good as deflating or imploding. _Storing_ simply stores the files without compression. You may use that if the files are uncompressible (already compressed files or compressed pictures such as GIF or JPEG files). STZip checks if the file to be compressed has been already compressed using ARC, LHARC, ZIP, ZOO, freeze, compress, PfxPack, Ice or Atom. That way, you won't loose time or space by trying to compress files that would give bad or no compression at all (not speaking of growing in size, which is possible with the Implode method). 2 - Updating and freshening --------------------------- These options allows to add a file you specified (in the command line) or selected (in Gem) only if it is needed : -Freshening : only specified files that are already in the zip and are newer than those in the zip will be added. -Updating : only specified files that are already in the zip and are newer than those in the zip, _AND_ the specified files that are not in the zipfile will be added. -Using a date line : only the files changed after the specified date will be added. To use those features in Gem, click on the 'Add Mode' box, and select what you want. To use those features in a command line, freshening is -f : stzip -f backup *.c updating is -u : stzip -u galery *.gif date line is -t : stzip -a -t011692 fip *.prg Will add all *.prg files created or changed after Janury 16th 1992. Note the US date format ! 3 - Self extracting files ------------------------- You may use ZIP2TOS.PRG to convert a zip file to a .TOS program which will contains the compressed files and will extract them when launched. Without parameters, you will be prompted for the file to convert. You may also calls it with the zipfile names in parameters, from the desktop (drag a file) or a shell (zip2tos *.zip) A self extracting file should contains _only_ deflating or stored files. It will be unable to explode or unshrink files. This is _not_ checked when ZIP2TOS does the conversion. A self extracting file may be used as a normal zip file. Using STZip >1.3, you will be able to change the comments, list, extract, add or delete compressed files in the self extracting file. 4 - Encryption -------------- A compressed file inside a zip may be crypted. STZip use the same algorithm as PKZIP, and also support the slighly different method used in the Unix versions of Zip/Unzip. You may specify a password using the -w switch when using the command line interface, or by clicking in the "Crypt box" in the Gem interface. The files to be compressed will be encrypted using that password. That password will be also used when extracting files. If you forgot to specify it and STZip encounter a crypted file, it will prompt you. (i.e. : if you compress files using password BURP and extract them without leaving STZip, STZip won't prompt you for the password since it still has BURP in mind). STZip is also able to tell you if the password supplied for extracting a file is wrong. Note that the password is not stored in the file (would be stupid!), STZip uses some techniques to see if the beginning of the file extracts correctly with the supplied password. 5 - Return codes from command line mode --------------------------------------- 1 : not enough memory 2 : file not found 3 : illegal option 4 : two actions specified 5 : no zip file specified 6 : no command specified 7 : error reading 8 : this file is not a zip file 9 : error writing 11 : warning during extraction (read/write error, CRC error ...) 12 : warning during compression 100 : Function not implemented 6 - Limitations --------------- The number of files in a zip is maximum 65536. Nevertheless, selection box in the GEM dialogs cannot display more than 200 files in a directory. A file with two directories of 200 files each will be displayed correctly in Gem. A file with 400 files in one directory will be processed correctly in Gem, but only the first 200 files will be in the selection box. 7 - The End ----------- Thanks to H. Okumura for his help with the 'sliding dictionary' compression and to Philippe Regnauld for the STZIP logo in GEM. Have fun using it ! Vincent Pomey, 28 April 1990, 13 April 1991. Translation by Peter Kocourek, 25 July 1991. Updated, 27 December 1992.