NTtar 0.02 Read me file 8/09/95

NTtar is a 32bit app written in C under MSVC 2.2. to aid in the exaction of
tarfiles(UNIX in this scope).

This the first formal release of NTtar.  NTtar addresses the age old problem
of extracting and storing tar files from UNIX boxes while preserving the
long filename(s).

**** NTtar will also work under WIN95, so all is good. ****
**** NTtar will not work under DOS or WIN32s, sadness. ****

NTtar should work fine with BSD, SYS V, and GNUtar formats.  I tried to use the
IEEE 1003.1 (POSIX 1) spec as the basis of my work.  The ustar and GNUtar 
extensions are not need by NT or WIN95.  The only case where things might get
bad are when the tar file is corrupted.

What will NTtar do?
tar x tarfile	Extract files preserving the path.
tar v tarfile	View the content of the tarfile.
tar h		Simple help system for NTtar.
other than that, not much!

What I eventually want it to be able to do...(in approximate order)
	*Extract preserving the date-time stamp.
	*Checksum checking
	*List file content more briefly.
	*Extract files, striping the path.
	*Confirm overwrites
	*Confirm creation of file
	*Progress indicator, bar or percentage.
	*Better internal help system.
	*Create archives.
	*Update archives.
	*Extract files changing to DOS style EOL markers.
	*Support GNUtar format.
	*build in gzip compression/decompression(way off)
	*automatic tar or tar.gz detection.
	*a nice GUI interface
	*read tared tapes(I'm seeing a blue sky right now)


So where is this going?
	I don't know.  I did this as more of an exercise than anything.  I'm
going to fix some of the more outstanding problems.  If I get E-mail giving
me the "thumbs up" on such a project, I'll try to implement more features.
If all goes well, I'll release a formal SHAREWARE version.

Versions:
	I have got the code to compile on UNIX (gcc), DOS (djgpp),
NT/WIN95 (msvc 2.x) and WIN 3.1x (msvc 1.5x), UNIX and NT the only platforms 
that support long filenames.

Send me your thoughts:
Email: johnam@datastorm.com (John A.Maier)