UPDATE.TXT, ARJ 2.62a BETA TEST RELEASE January 1999 This documents new or updated information since ARJ 2.60. Please refer to UPDATE.TXT in ARJ 2.60 for more information. YOU SHOULD REFER TO THE ARJ WEBSITE REGULARLY TO CHECK FOR PROBLEM REPORTS AND PROGRAM UPDATES. http://www.arjsoftware.com ** IMPORTANT NEWS **************************************************** This is a public PRE-RELEASE TEST VERSION of ARJ 2.62a. You should only use this version for TESTING PURPOSES. This version is NOT intended for new ARJ users. Only experienced ARJ users should test this program. Please keep in mind that this is a PRE-RELEASE TEST version and may have program bugs. You should backup your computer data before using this program and should do so often while using this program. Several users have reported that various releases of ARJ have cause VIRUS ALARMS from Norton AntiVirus software. This release and all previous releases have been checked by IBM, Norton, McAfee virus scanners. ** THIS RELEASE USES AN ENHANCED ARJ ARCHIVE HEADER FORMAT ** ** COMPATIBLE WITH PREVIOUS VERSIONS OF ARJ. HOWEVER, ** ** SOME THIRD PARTY ARCHIVER MENU PROGRAMS MAY NOT BE ** ** COMPATIBLE WITH ARCHIVES PRODUCED BY THIS ARJ VERSION. ** The ARJ file header has been lengthened by a number of bytes to support additional file properties. The new "-j$" option will disable this new header enhancement. It is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that you run the TESTARJ.BAT batch file to verify that this version of ARJ.EXE is working correctly. Please do report any issues that you encounter with this new version. Some problems such as the rare hang with the -hm option have only been reported two times in six months. We are also interested in your comments concerning these new features. The name of our company has changed to ARJ Software, Inc. ARJ Software, Inc. is now marketing two archiver products, ARJ and a new archiver JAR (JAR16/JAR32), that produces "J" archives which are not compatible with ARJ. The 32 bit version of JAR (JAR32) supports the Windows NT operating system version 3.50 and above as well as Windows 95. We have developed the new archiver, JAR, so that we could provide state of the art data compression with solid archiving techniques and new compression algorithms. These improvements could not be added to ARJ without introducing serious compatibility issues with older releases of ARJ. JAR16/32 compresses significantly better than ARJ and PKZIP for many files and provides long filename support for both Windows 95 and Windows NT. JAR16/32 duplicates much of ARJ's powerful functionality and provides new original functionality, too. However, it does not duplicate ARJ and it requires more system resources (memory and cpu power) to run. See our web site for a copy of this archiver. Please note that it is our intention to continue supporting and enhancing the ARJ product. A significant number of new features have been added to ARJ in the past year. ARJ has the advantages of a large installed base, a simple archive format, significant third party software support, and a long history of reliable performance. We also plan to provide ARJ support for Windows. A 32 BIT CONSOLE VERSION OF ARJ FOR WINDOWS 95 AND WINDOWS NT IS AVAILABLE FOR TESTING. This version has been changed with regard to the storage of the SFX modules and the built-in help information. The change now requires that MS-DOS 3.0 and above be used to access the SFX modules and the help information. Under DOS 2.11, the help screens and self-extractor creation will work if ARJ.EXE is located in the CURRENT directory. This change frees up more conventional memory for ARJ use. The mailing address of ARJ Software, Inc. has changed as of August 1993. ARJ Software, Inc. P.O. Box 249 Norwood MA 02062 USA FAX: 781-769-4893 EMAIL: robjung@world.std.com There is ARJ WEB site support information added to the file ARJ.TXT. It is excerpted below: http://www.ARJSOFTWARE.com (ARJ homepage) http://www.Dunkel.de/ARJ (German and English) http://www.glo.be/tsf (French and English) You can find information about the world of ARJ on the Internet by using various search sites including www.altavista.com, www.yahoo.com, and www.dejanews.com. Our credit card ordering procedures have changed. We now process credit cards directly. ********************************************************************** ARJ YEAR 2000 COMPLIANCE STATEMENT The program ARJ is YEAR 2000 compliant and will not produce errors processing date data in connection with the year change from December 31, 1999 to January 1, 2000 or with the leap year factor from February 28, 2000 to February 29, 2000 when used with accurate date data. This statement applies to ARJ versions 2.30, 2.41a, 2.50a, 2.60, and versions under development. No special user changes or activities are required for this compliance. No programming or configuration changes are required either. Disclaimer: The Statement of Compliance refers to ARJ products as delivered by ARJ Software, Inc. The Compliance Statement does not apply to third party add-on features or products. The Compliance statement does not constitute a warranty or extend the terms of any existing warranty. This statement supersedes all previous ARJ year 2000 compliance statements. ARJ YEAR 2000 IMPROVEMENTS This version of ARJ has been modified to allow the specification of the century for the ARJ date options "-o" and "-ob". Prior to this version, the ARJ date options would accept a date in the form of YYMMDD. With this version, ARJ will accept dates in both YYMMDD and YYYYMMDD formats. ARJ will presume that any year specifications beginning with 19, 20, and 21 are YYYY type specifications and any year specifications beginning with 80, 81, 82 ... 99 are YY type specifications. Example: -o980105 -> on or after Jan 5, 1998 -o19980105 -> on or after Jan 5, 1998 -o100105 -> on or after Jan 5, 2010 -o20100105 -> on or after Jan 5, 2010 -o201001051200 -> on or after Jan 5, 2010 12:00 P.M. LONG FILENAME SUPPORT ARJ versions 2.60 and above support long filenames ONLY in the Windows 95 graphical environment. ARJ does NOT support long filenames in Windows NT, NTFS, or OS/2. ARJ is a DOS program that uses the special DOS hooks available in Windows 95 to access the long filenames. In development is a 32 bit console mode version of ARJ that supports Win 95 and Win NT long filenames. It should be available for public testing and comment before the end of 1998. REMINDER: When specifying filenames with embedded blanks or symbols like ">", "<", or "|" on the command line, you MUST quote the filenames. When specifying a target directory name that contains spaces, you must quote the directory name. If the name specification ends in a "\" backslash (needed for a non-existent directory), you must insert a space after the "\". Alternatively, you can use the "-ht" option. Example: ARJ x archive "C:\Program Files\ " or ARJ x archive "-htC:\Program Files" In addition, ARJ 2.62 supports the Win95 file properties date-time accessed and date-time created. This support results in slightly larger archives. The "-j$" option can be used to disable this new feature. ARJ does not support the file attributes of TEMPORARY or COMPRESSED. WINDOWS 95 LONG FILENAME LABELING A very noticeable change is how ARJ archives files within Windows 95. In 2.60, ARJ would label/mark all files saved in Windows 95 as Windows 95 long filename files. In 2.61 and above, ARJ will label as Windows 95 files only those files whose Windows 95 filename is different from its MS-DOS filename. "NAME.txt" is NOT the same as "NAME.TXT" because of case. As an aid, ARJ will display the count of long filenames encountered when adding files or listing an archive. The longname test is done based upon the filename or pathname specified by the user. Filenames within a longname directory would not necessarily be labeled as Win95 long filenames if the filename specification excluded the directory name. The new "-hf4" option will set ARJ to label all files saved under Windows 95 as Windows 95 long filenames (as in 2.60). To help locate Windows 95 files within an archive, ARJ has a new "w" option for the "-hb" option. For extraction, deletion, and listing, the "-hbw" option will select only files that are marked as Windows 95 files. This option is non-functional for adding or updating files. It is limited to selecting files within an existing archive. This option is useful when extracting an archive in MS-DOS and encountering one or more "Requires Win95 or -hf...." error messages. The user would be able to view the files that are affected and take appropriate actions. Example: ARJ x archive *.* (assume some Win95 errors) ARJ x archive *.* -hf1 Windows 95 DOS support (and therefore ARJ) do not support access to long filenames containing certain characters. For example, a filename containing the copyright symbol or the trademark symbol cannot be accessed in a Win95 DOS window with the COPY command or with ARJ. These type of filenames can only be accessed via their short names. The Win95 system normally stores filename characters as two bytes per symbol allowing an alphabet of 65536 possible symbols. Because Win95 DOS only uses one byte per character position allowing only a 256 symbol alphabet, many characters are displayed by Win95 DOS as "_". COMPATIBILITY WITH ARJ32 With this release, a new program ARJ32 for Windows 95/98/NT has been released for alpha level testing. ARJ32 has been designed to support the Windows 32 bit environment. It is generally compatible with ARJ for DOS (2.xx). However, ARJ32 has an option to use the ANSI codepage to access the file system instead of the default OEM codepage. Archives created using the ANSI codepage may not be processed correctly by ARJ for DOS because of a filename translation issue (ANSI to OEM codepage). Special symbols and foreign characters may not be translated correctly. In addition, ANSIPAGE archives have an additional compatibility issue with versions of ARJ from 2.30 and earlier. Those versions will treat ANSI codepage archives as CORRUPTED ARJ-SECURED archives. This should not be an issue since ANSI codepage archives should not be processed by ARJ for DOS. ARJ 2.62a will not process such an archive unless the "-hy" option is specified. ARJSFX/ARJSFXV POST EXTRACTION EXECUTION OPTION For software distributors, this version of ARJ provides for the execution of a command after self-extraction. The ARJSFX and ARJSFXV modules support the execution of a command after a successful extraction. The ARJSFX and ARJSFXV modules support the "-!" option which allows the user to build a self-extractor which will execute a command after its files are successfully extracted. This option is most useful with the embedded command line feature. The command must not contain any blanks if it is used in the embedded command line. If a target directory is specified, the target directory will be set as the working directory for the post-extraction command. Example: )) C:\DIR\ -!SETUP.EXE The above example will cause the command "SETUP.EXE" to be executed in the directory C:\DIR. Please note that the user will always be prompted by the self-extractor for permission to execute this command. This prompt is disabled for ARJ-SECURED self-extracting archives. ARJSFX/ARJSFXV VIRUS CHECK Both the ARJSFX and ARJSFXV self-extractors now perform a simple virus damage check before processing the self-extractor's archive. If damage is detected, the self-extractor will abort with an error message indicating possible damage. This check will not work for a virus designed specifically to attack ARJ self-extractors. The ARJSFX self-extractor has a "-s" option to skip this virus check. The ARJSFXV self-extractor has a "-a" option to skip the virus check. You can include the above skip option as part of a custom built-in command line. ARJSFX/ARJSFXV VERIFY BEFORE EXTRACTION OPTION Both the ARJSFX and ARJSFXV self-extractors now accept the "-x" and "-t" options simultaneously to enable the testing of an archive just before extracting the archive. Example: )) C:\DIR\ -x -t ARJSFXV PASSWORD PROMPT A garbled ARJSFXV self-extracting archive will automatically prompt the user for the password when extracting or testing the archive. You must use ARJ 2.61 and above to create the garbled archive as well as create the ARJSFXV self-extractor. Example: ARJ a vendor *.* -gpassword -je -v360 NOTE: If you create a garbled archive with ARJ 2.61 and above and add ungarbled files and then delete the garbled files, ARJ will continue to mark the archive as a garbled archive. Currently, only the ARJSFXV module takes note of this marking. ARJSFXV SUPPORT FOR FILE DTA AND DTC PROPERTIES The ARJSFXV self-extractor will restore Win95 file date-time accessed and date-time created properties from an ARJ archive that contains those file properties. ARJ 2.62 and up can create such an archive. This feature will only work within the Win95 GUI environment. The "-j$" option can be used to disable this support. ARJ COMMAND LINE SHORTCUT New to ARJ 2.62 is the expansion of command line directory names to full wildcard specifications. However, this feature will only work properly if the first filespec on the command line is NOT a directory. The ARJ placeholder "..." can be used for that first filespec. A directory name used as the first filespec will result in that directory being specified as the TARGET directory and affecting subsequent filespecs. Example: ARJ a archive ... DIR1 dir2 dir\dir3 is equivalent to ARJ a archive DIR1\*.* dir2\*.* dir\dir3\*.* Example: ARJ a archive DIR1 dir2 dir\dir3 is equivalent to ARJ a archive DIR1\dir2\*.* DIR1\dir\dir3\*.* ARJ RESPONSE FILE ARJ supports the specification of the "-g" and "-g?" options on the command line along with a response file specification. Using this feature is more secure than putting a password specification within an ARJ response file which is written to disk. SHAREWARE LIMITATIONS After ARJ version 2.41a, full functionality of a small set of ARJ software features will NOT be available in the shareware versions of ARJ (registered or not). These features include the multiple volume self-extractor, the ARJSFX embedded command line feature, and the inhibit display messages option. The full featured versions will ONLY be available from ARJ Software, Inc. and its agents. Registered ARJ users can upgrade to this version for a small shipping/handling fee (five dollars) or a SASE with diskette. Check the WHATSNEW.TXT file for changes since ARJ 2.41a. ENCRYPTION New to version 2.60 is a new encryption scheme based upon the Russian encryption algorithm (GOST 28147-89 cipher). This algorithm is similar in design to DES; however, GOST is designed for software implementation. GOST 28147-89 uses a 256 bit key and 32 rounds of encryption. In addition, this implementation of GOST also uses the 64 bit cipher feedback mode. This new encryption is accessed by using the "-g" option to specify the password and the "-hg" option to specify the new scheme. This new scheme is in addition to the older XOR garble scheme. The encryption module is a separate COM file named ARJCRYPT.COM. ARJ expects to find the encryption module in the same directory as itself. This has the advantage of saving space with the ARJSFXV module and the DEARJ.EXE module when encryption is not needed. You simply do not include the encryption module in the archive when not using encryption. For non-USA users, the encryption overlay module is not included with this version of ARJ. Because of USA export regulations, ARJ Software, Inc. may not export the encryption overlay module from the USA. ** Please NOTE that losing your password means losing your file! ** Please DO NOT ask for technical support on lost passwords. ** There is no shortcut/backdoor for determining lost passwords. New to ARJ 2.61 is a limited key size version of GOST encryption. ARJ 2.61 now provides a "-hg!" option which invokes the built-in 40 bit key version of the Russian GOST encryption algorithm. The normal GOST algorithm has a 256 bit key size. This limited encryption is provided to meet USA encryption export rules. ARJ CAUTIONS Whenever archiving to diskettes, it is HIGHLY recommended that the option "-jt" be used. This helps spot BAD diskettes or BAD diskette drives. It is HIGHLY recommended that the "-jt" option be used in a Windows or multi-tasking or network environment. In addition, the diskette drive should NOT be read or write cached. This allows the "-jt" option to work properly. For Windows 95, ARJ.EXE at 2.61 automatically forces a re-read of the diskette drive. The XMS accelerator in Hurricane 2.0 MAY interfere with the use of the ARJ -hm! option within a Windows DOS box. You can use the -hm option instead. UNERASE or UNDELETE commands do not always recover a file/archive correctly. This will result in damaged archives. This is true for all archive types. You should always test an archive after unerasing it. CAUTION: To those who use the "-t1" and/or "-t1g" options to save a few extra bytes. This option should only be used on TEXT FILES. Those are files created by EDLIN, EDIT, QEDIT, BRIEF, NOTEPAD, and others. Text files typically contain only letters, numbers, spaces, and punctuation marks. WORD PROCESSOR format files ARE NOT TEXT FILES! MS WORD, Wordperfect, AMIPRO, WRITE, and similar files ARE NOT TEXT FILES. Using the "-t1" or "-t1g" on any other kind of file probably will result in DATA LOSS! ARJ ERRORLEVELS ARJ will now return a DOS error code of 11 for a user control break action. ARJ formerly returned a code of 2 for this situation. ARJ will now return a DOS error code of 12 when trying to modify a chapter archive that already has 250 chapters in it. ARJ formerly returned a code of 2 for this situation. ARJ COMMANDS "l" command "v" command ARJ will display the count of files selected within an archive that have Windows 95 long filenames. The listing format has been changed to better indicate the century years. Instead of a "+" symbol to indicate the year 2000, ARJ will now display a "0" for year 2000, a "1" for the year 2100. This character appears immediately before the date-time field. The "v" command will now display Win95 file date-time accessed and file date-time created properties if they exist in the archive. ARJ SWITCHES "-g" switch The garble option in this version of ARJ has three versions. One is the original version found in earlier ARJ releases. It is compatible with older versions and works like those versions. The second garble version uses a separate encryption module. This new option is accessed by using the new "-hg" option. This option sets ARJ to use the separate encryption module to encrypt the data. By default, ARJ will look for the file "ARJCRYPT.COM" in the same directory where the ARJ.EXE being executed is found. The user may specify the pathname of the module to use. Examples: ARJ a archive *.doc -gThis_is_a_password -hg ARJ a archive *.doc -gpassword -hgc:\dir\enc.com The new garble option accepts a password key up to 32 characters long. Excess characters are ignored. Garble passwords ARE CASE SENSITIVE! DO NOT LOSE your password! There is no known method to recover the password other than by brute force, which could take a very long time. The longer the password, the longer it would take to "guess" it. A variation of the "-hg" option is "-hg!". This "-hg!" option accesses a built-in version of GOST that is limited to a 40 bit key size. This algorithm is designed to meet USA encryption export rules. These new encryption schemes are not compatible with the "-g" option of pre-2.55 versions of ARJ. If you want to maintain compatibility with pre-2.55 versions of ARJ, you should NOT use the "-hg" option. Only the multiple volume self-extractor supports the new encryption module. When garbling or ungarbling an existing archive, ARJ will detect the method of encryption previously used and select that same method regardless of whether the "-hg" option is specified or not. "-oa" switch The "-oa" and "-oab" switches allow the user to select files under Windows 95 based upon file date-time last accessed. "-oa" selects files after the date value, "-oab" selects files before. This ARJ version does NOT support combining "-o", "-oa", "-oc" with one another. You CAN combine "-oa" with "-oab". "-oc" switch The "-oc" and "-ocb" switches allow the user to select files under Windows 95 based upon file date-time created. "-oc" selects files after the date value, "-ocb" selects files before. "-odb" switch The "-od" and "-odb" switches allow the user to select files based upon the number of days from today. The "-odb" switch allows the user to select files modified before the specified number of days from today. You CAN combine the "-od" and "-odb" switches. "-v" switch New to ARJ 2.61 is a simple delete option "D" when creating volume archives. For SAFETY REASONS, this delete option is limited in scope and specification. The exact file or files (via wildcard) must be specified. A directory name is not sufficient (A:\ or C:\TEMP). A filename or wildspec is required (A:\*.* or C:\TEMP\*.TXT). In addition, this delete option does not delete through (recurse) subdirectories. In other words, this delete function works similar to the DOS DEL command except that a filespec is required. ARJ accepts all characters after the "D" option as the filespec. Examples: ARJ a a:archive -vada:\*.* ARJ a testvol -v1440dtestvol.a* "-h#" switch This feature has been modified to use only the last two digits of the year. So the year 2010 will be represented by "10". This will still provide "uniqueness" for filename generation. Daily created archives will not collide name-wise for 100 years. "-hb" switch This switch is used to select by file attribute or file type. The "-hb" option can be used to select files by their attributes (normal, readonly, hidden, system, directory, and archive bit). "Normal" is defined as files that are NOT the following: readonly, hidden, system, label, chapter header, or directory. For extract/list operations, you can also select chapter labels and volume labels. By default, the "-hb" option by itself selects all types of files. If you specify a letter symbol representing a file type, you are selecting ONLY that type of file. You can specify a series of letters representing all of the file types that you want to select. For example, the "-hbdr" option selects both directories and readonly files. Selections are additive. Example: -hbnr select only normal and readonly files Single letters represent each attribute or type. a - archive bit set b - archive bit clear h - hidden r - readonly s - system d - directory n - normal files (not d, h, r, s, l, c) l - volume label c - chapter label f - abbreviation for "ndhrs" w - Windows 95 long filenames The archive bit selection ("a" or "b") is a special case. If you have selected no types of files EXCEPT files with the archive bit set, ARJ will select from the set of all file types. If you have selected one or more file types, ARJ will select based upon the archive bit from the selected set of files types. Examples: -hbhrsa select hidden, readonly files with archive bit set -hba select all files with archive bit set Add/update options : f, d, r, h, s, n, a, b. Extract/list options: f, d, r, h, s, n, a, b, c, l, w. Examples: ARJ a archive *.* -r -hbrs select only readonly and system files ARJ a archive *.* -r -hbd store only directories ARJ l archive *.* -hbr list only readonly files ARJ l archive -jb* -hbc list chapter headers Notes: The option "-hb" with no letter options is an abbreviation for "-hbndhrslc" (all types). "-hf3" switch When building a dual-name archive, ARJ will now check for files that have long filenames inaccessible through MS-DOS. These are filenames that contain symbols that WIN95/MS-DOS translates into the underscore "_" symbol. ARJ will display the "Can't open ..." error message for each such file encountered. "-hf4" switch This switch sets ARJ to label all files archived under Windows 95 as Windows 95 long filenames. "-hg" switch This switch is used to specify the filename of the encryption module to be used when encrypting a new archive. The default filename is "ARJCRYPT.COM". ARJCRYPT.COM contains a new encryption scheme that is incompatible with earlier releases of ARJ. ARJ will look for the encryption module in the directory that contains the copy ARJ.EXE that is being executed unless the specified module name contains a path symbol "\" as in "ARJ\OLDCRYPT.COM". If you want to use a module in the current directory, you should specify the name as in ".\ARJCRYPT.COM". The "." indicates the current directory. With an existing archive, ARJ detects the encryption scheme that was used to encrypt the archive and uses the same scheme regardless of whether the "-hg" option is specified or not. "-hg!" switch This switch is used to specify the use of a built-in 40 bit version of the Russian GOST encryption algorithm. This algorithm is limited to a 40 bit key to meet USA encryption export rules. Any password input to this function will be crunched down to a 40 bit size. "-hq1" switch This switch sets ARJ to ignore the error that occurs when ARJ cannot open a file because it cannot be found during an add-type command and/or a compare command. This is DOS error code 2. This option applies only to files being added to a new archive and/or being compared. For an existing archive, this option will be ignored during the add operation, but NOT during a subsequent compare operation. This open error typically happens when a temporary file that ARJ has found to archive is purged by another process before ARJ can actually open and compress/compare it. This is not the same error as when a user specifies a filename on the command line and ARJ cannot find it. This error also occurs in Windows 95 when trying to archive files with filenames that contain "unusual" symbols. These are the symbols that have no equivalent in MS-DOS. MS-DOS displays those symbols as "_" underscore. If you use the "-ji" option to set up an index file, ARJ will log any file that it cannot open. "-hy" switch This switch will set ARJ to allow the extraction of ARJ32 created archives containing ANSI codepage filenames. ARJ for DOS always uses the OEM codepage which may translate ANSI codepage filenames incorrectly or not at all. Filenames containing only alphanumeric characters and the DOT symbol should be translated correctly. The default for ARJ32 is the OEM codepage. "-j#2" switch This switch will set ARJ to restore the file attributes to the selected files. No file will be extracted. Archives created with the "-j#" and "-j#1" options can be used. "-j#3" switch This switch will set ARJ to restore the file dates (written, accessed, created) to the selected files. No file will be extracted. "-j#4" switch This switch will set ARJ to restore the file attributes and the file dates (written, accessed, created) to the selected files. No file will be extracted. "-j$" switch This switch will set ARJ to NOT save the file properties date-time accessed and date-time created. This will save header size and result in a slightly smaller archive. During extraction, this switch will set ARJ to NOT restore the file properties date-time accessed and date-time created. "-ji" switch ARJ will now log extraction errors to the index file. "-jo1" switch This switch will set ARJ on extraction to generate unique output filenames AND keep the current file extension. Example: NOTE.TXT will generate NOTE.001.TXT and so on. "-jt" switch "-jt1" switch In DOS and Windows 95 when using removable media (diskettes), ARJ will flush and invalidate cached diskette data from memory, so that testing is done on the actual data on the diskette. A side effect of this improvement in reliability is longer diskette testing times. Missing directories will now be reported as errors. "-jt3" switch This switch allows one to do a quick compare of files within an archive and on disk. ARJ will only compare the date-time stamps and the size of the files. Example: ARJ t archive -jt3 There is a limitation in that multiple volume archives will generate (size) errors for the files split over volumes. end document