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Text File | 1993-01-25 | 24.2 KB | 624 lines

+----------------------------------------------------+ | LHA Chunker, (C) Copyright 1991-92, Scott Jibben | | Version 2.01 | +----------------------------------------------------+ This is a list of the files that should accompany this software package: LC.DOC - LHA Chunker Documentation. LC.EXE - LHA Chunker executable. DISTSAMP.DOC - Sample of a distribution license. SITESAMP.DOC - Sample of a site license. SITEINFO.DOC - Information and applications of licensing. LICENSE.DOC - License for LHA Chunker software. PRICE.DOC - Pricing guidelines for site/distribution licenses. ORDERFRM.DOC - The order form. CC-ORDER.DOC - Information to register by credit card. CATALOG.JSW - Information on Jibben Software Products. WHATSNEW.TXT - The Version History of LHA Chunker. AVEXTRA.TXT - Information regarding PKZIP AV codes. ARJ-SEC.TXT - Information regarding ARJ Security envelope. FILE_ID.DIZ - BBS Description File. What this software does This software is a file splitting utility. It supports two modes of operation. 1. It can split ANY type of file to a desired size creating multiple files with the AS file extension. These file will be exactly the size requested except for the last file created. Using this mode of operation you will be able to split any file to your requirements. The only disadvantage of using this method is that you will have to use LHA Chunker ( or Archive Sizer ) to "reassemble" the files back to the original file. 2. It can split files created by the LHA software to your desired size. This will create multiple files that retain compatibility with the LHA software. The only disadvantage to using this method is if the internal compressed files are larger than the requested size. LHA Chunker can't force the files to be smaller and retain compatibility. In this case it is recommended to use method 1. The only compression software files that LHA Chunker supports is: LHA created by Haruyasu Yoshizaki's LHA software. Requirements for LHA Chunker LHA Chunker allocates memory as needed when processing. However, I suggest that you have at least 200KB of free memory to run it. If you are going to process large LHA files (with a lot of files, not total size), I suggest that you have 400KB of free memory to run LHA Chunker. Installation Instructions It is relatively simple to install LHA Chunker. All you have to do is copy the files to a subdirectory that is listed in your PATH statement in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. You could also just create a new subdirectory, copy the files there, and then add the new sub- directory to the PATH statement. I won't go into the details of making subdirectories and modifying your path as you should have good examples of this in your DOS manual. The concept of Shareware LHA Chunker is being released as a Shareware product. Shareware is a marketing concept, in which you get to try out a software package for a period of time. If you find that the software is useful to you (you are still using it), you are obligated to send in a registration fee for that software to the author. LHA Chunker's trial period is 21 days. That means, once you start using LHA Chunker, you have 21 days to decide whether or not it is useful to you. If it is useful to you, please promptly send in the requested registration fee. If it is not useful to you, you are expected to delete it and stop using it. LHA Chunker is fully functional. However, it has a message that will appear every time it is used to size or reassemble files. Here's what you get when you register (Please use ORDER.FRM to order this software): 1. Support. You can call and leave e-mail to me on any of the BBS' listed in the Technical Support section of this document or CompuServe and get a response from me. I will more than likely answer all questions, but the registered individuals will definitely get top priority. You will also receive unlimited telephone support for the program. Registered users will get a phone number that they will be able to use to receive support between the hours of 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm (Central Standard Time) Monday-Friday. 2. You will receive a disk with the most recent version of LHA Chunker. The software will also have the registration reminder screen removed. Your name and serial number will also be displayed when the software is run. 3. Special access to new products. You will be allowed access to beta test any software package that I'm in the process of creating. The beta software will be available on the Warehouse BBS and CompuServe. Also, you must make arrangements with Jibben Software to get access to the new software. (see Technical Support section of this document for details). 4. You will also have low cost upgrades of this software. Advantages of Using LHA Chunker I've designed LHA Chunker to make the least demands on your hardware. It is the fastest file splitting utility available (not counting other Jibben Software products). One other benefit from using LHA Chunker is the amount of disk space it requires to process an archive file. It uses the absolute minimum disk space that is required to process a file. LHA Chunker automatically determines the disk space required and will tell you if you don't have enough BEFORE you create the files. The algorithm in which I calculate the amount of files to put in a archive file is highly optimized. LHA Chunker will sometimes have one less file than other software packages of this type and the files will be closer to the requested size. LHA Chunker can handle any file created using LHA. One of my beta testers ran LC on a 180 Megabyte LHA file and LC processed it without problems. Archive Sizer and LHA Chunker are the only software packages that I know of that supports the LHA file format as well as any file sizing. Why LHA Chunker will not Re-Assemble Archive Files LHA Chunker was never intended to be used to reassemble archive files, only *.AS files. At first thought, it may seem unreasonable to you, but there are several reasons why. Hopefully after reading the main reasons you'll understand why I chose not to. 1. Some archivers already provide the ability to combine archives (ARJ). 2. There would be no way for LC to 'know' how many files are in a set. With the *.AS file standard, I can store the number of split files in the file. With the archives, there is no provision for this. For instance, if you would tell it to reassemble mylha-01.lzh, how many files should LC expect to put together? Since modifying the archives format would make it a 'corrupted' file, there is no way to track this. 3. The other problem is that people would expect when they split an archive and then reassemble, that it would be identical to the original file. LC is so effective on creating files that match the size parm because they grab files from anywhere in the archive to create them. You can see this for yourself, just split a LHA and compare the files in xxx-01.lzh to the original xxx. You'll notice that I don't just take the first so many files until the size hits the limit and then start the next file. xxx-01.lzh can contain the 1st, 8th, 22nd, 30th, etc. files. Given this fact, it is impossible to reassemble a archive file (LZH) back to it's original state. There is no way for me to flag each file as being the 1st, 4th, etc. file of the original. 4. Finally, I have to ask you, "Why?". I seriously wonder why you would want to put the LZH's back together. The files still extract fine. Why take the _extra_ step to reassemble the files into one file, then extract the one big file? Isn't it easier to just run something like "LHA x mym8-?.lzh". This one command will extract all the LZH's, mym8-1, mym8-2, etc. Just use the '?' where the numbers are in the LZH's. Using LHA Chunker The software is fairly straight-forward and easy to use. In fact, I doubt that you will need to read this document in order to be able to use the software. LHA Chunker will always display all of your options when you just type in LC and press Enter. The following is a list of the options with their descriptions. Since there are two modes of operating LC, I've listed the examples for these modes separately following the parameter descriptions. +------------------------+ | Parameter Descriptions | +------------------------+ [/L] - This option causes LHA Chunker to display its license information and information about contacting the author for support. [file] - This parameter is to be replaced with the name of the file that you wish to size. If there is an LHA file in the location that you've specified, LC will be able to detect the file by the files extension. Therefore, you would be able to just type in ARCFILE instead of ARCFILE.LZH. If you specify a file that doesn't have LZH for the file extension, LC will default to the AS file format. You can also 'force' this method of sizing with the /A option. Also, if you specify just an AS file, (no other parameters), LC will report information on the AS file. [max size] - This is option is used for specifying the maximum size of the files that you wish to create. LC will use this value in attempting to keep your files a certain size or smaller. There are several ways to specify this size. The first is to just specify a size in bytes, like 200000. Note that there are NO commas in this number. The other two methods are 'preset' values for floppy disk sizes. The old Zip Chunker presets are available, /5L, /5H, /3L, and /3H. There is also a new one called /3E for the new 2.88MB floppy disks. The last method is using the /S: option. After /S: you specify the size of the floppy that you wish to size to. The list of different options is listed on the info screen. For example, to size for a 3.5" high density floppy, the option would be /S:1.44. The default [max size] is 1.44MB. [/E] - Using this option will cause LHA Chunker to erase the original LHA file. This only works for LHA files. NOTE: It has been disabled for AS files. +------------------------+ | Parameter Descriptions | +------------------------+ [/F] - This option is only valid for LHA files, NOT AS files. It is used to make LC size the resulting files so that when the new files are uncompressed they will fit on the [max size] that you specified using a floppy size. Note: this only works when using a valid floppy disk preset (see the [max size] option). [/D:path] - This option is used to tell LC where to put the files that it creates. This is how you tell LC to put the new files on a floppy disk. LC will prompt you to put in a new floppy disk when it is needed. You can also use this option to put the files on another hard disk or sub-directory. It will work as long as you provide a valid destination. Note: when using this option with a floppy disk size preset (see [max size] option), the disk must be able to support the size you requested. Also, when sizing to a floppy drive, make sure you have enough blank, formatted disks available for the process. [/A] - This option is used for 'force' sizing the file into an AS file. This is helpful if you want to size an LHA file to fit on a floppy when there are internal files that are larger than the disk size you are attempting to size for. [/R] - This option is used to reassemble AS files back to the original file. It is simple to use. Just supply one of the AS filenames and this option and LC will reassemble it back together. [/M] - This option will report the smallest allowable value for [max size]. It is useful for determining the value that you can use for [max size] before making the attempt to size a file. [/N] - This option will report the number of new files that will be created without actually creating them. [/T] - This option will allow LHA Chunker to use the current date and time for the new files that are created. [/L#] - This option will allow you to leave # amount of space ( in bytes ) on the first file. It works with *.AS and archive files. The primary use for this option is to 'leave space' in the first file to reserve room for other software on that disk. +----------+ | Examples | +----------+ For All Types of Files ---------------------- C:\WORK>LC The example above will display LHA Chunker's Information screen. This displays all the available command line options. C:\WORK>LC \L The example above will display LHA Chunker's license information. It also displays information about support BBS and the authors CompuServe ID. C:\WORK>LC workdata /m The example above will display the smallest allowable size for the [max size] parameter for sizing. C:\WORK>LC file 500000 /n The example above will display the number of new files that will be created when sizing the file. It doesn't actually size the file. C:\WORK>LC myfile 500000 /t The example above will size myfile to be 500,000 bytes and will use the current system date and time on the files. C:\WORK>LC myfile /L50000 The example above will size myfile to fit on 3.5" high density floppy disks. However, the first file will be 50,000 bytes smaller than the rest. This would allow for the storage of LC.EXE (or other 'install' type programs) on the first disk of the split files. +----------+ | Examples | +----------+ For LHA Files ------------- Here are some examples on the use of LC for archive files: C:\WORK>LC workdata The above example will break out files from WORKDATA.LZH that will be equal to or smaller than the size of a file that would fit on a 3.5" HD disk. It will also save the original file. C:\WORK>LC 123data.LZH /5L /E The above example will break out files from 123DATA.LZH and these files will be equal to or smaller than what would fit on a 5.25" low density disk. It will delete 123DATA.LZH when it is done. C:\WORK>as 123data.LZH /S:360 /E The above example will work exactly as the previous example. The only difference is the use of the /S: parameter instead of /5l. C:\TELIX\UL>LC e:\games\biggame.LZH 200000 The above example will break out files from E:\GAMES\BIGGAME.LZH and these files will be equal to or smaller than 200,000 bytes. The original file, E:\GAMES\BIGGAME.LZH, will be saved as well. Also, the new LHA files will be created in C:\TELIX\UL. C:\EXCEL\XLS>LC XLSHEETS.LZH /s:1.44 /d:a: The above example will break out files from XLSHEETS.LZH. The new files will fit on a 1.44MB floppy. The files will be created on drive A:. When the floppy is filled with a file, LHA Chunker will prompt for a formatted blank disk for the next file. The original file will be saved. This process requires NO hard disk space, only formatted blank floppy disks. Also, LC will check to determine if the size you specified matches type of floppy hardware is available. At any prompt you can press Esc to abort the process. +----------+ | Examples | +----------+ C:\CLIPART\PICS>LC CA-PICS.LZH /s:1.44 /f The above example will break out files from CAP-PICS.LZH. The new LHA files when uncompressed will fit on a 1.44MB floppy disk. The original file will be saved. This process requires NO hard disk space, only formatted blank floppy disks. Also, LC will check to determine if the size you specified matches type of floppy hardware is available. At any prompt you can press Esc to abort the process. For AS Files ------------ C:\WORK>as bigdb-1 The above example will display the AS file information for the BIGDB-1.AS file. Note: the file extension is optional. C:\WORK>as bigdata.db The above example will size the BIGDATA.DB file into AS files. The new AS files will be created in the C:\WORK directory. BIGDATA.DB will not be erased when processing is completed. C:\WORK>as data.LZH /a The above example will size the DATA.LZH file into AS files. The new AS files will be created in the C:\WORK directory. Note: the /A option over-rides the normal LHA file sizing. DATA.LZH will not be erased when processing is completed. C:\WORK>as bigdata.db /d:a: /s:1.44 The above example will size the BIGDATA.DB file into AS files. The new AS files will be created on the A: drive (if A: is a 1.44MB drive). LHA Chunker will prompt for new disks. This option requires NO hard disk space for processing. BIGDATA.DB will not be erased when processing is completed. +----------+ | Examples | +----------+ C:\WORK>as bigdb-1 /r The above example will reassemble the AS files in the BIGDB-#.AS series of file names. C:\WORK>as bigdb-3 /r The above example will reassemble the AS files in the BIGDB-?.AS series of file names. Note: LHA Chunker will start at the first file name in the series even though the file above is not the first file. C:\WORK>as bigdb-1 /r /d:d:\access The above example will reassemble the AS files in the BIGDB-?.AS series of file names. The created file will be placed in the D:\ACCESS directory. C:\WORK>as a:bigdb-1 /r The above example will reassemble the AS files in the BIGDB-?.AS series of file names from the A: floppy drive. LC will prompt for each disk in the series to reassemble the file. The created file will be placed in the C:\WORK directory. Miscellaneous LHA Chunker will not allow you to process a file if there isn't enough free disk space available. If LHA Chunker finds a file in the original archive file that is larger than the maximum size specified, it will give you the option of continuing to process the archive file. The result of this type of operation is that there will be some files that have only one file in them but they will still be larger than the maximum size. If the original file is already smaller than the maximum size then LHA Chunker will tell you and not process the file. LHA Chunker will in most cases be able to detect that a file passed to it is a valid LHA file or not. It will not be able to detect if the internal files have been corrupted, though. +--------------------------------+ | LHA Chunker Programming Info | +--------------------------------+ LHA Chunker will return the following DOS Error Levels when it aborts in an error state: 1. Out of memory. 2. Incorrect [max size] for floppy drive specified. 3. Can't open file. 4. Reserved. 5. Reserved. 6. File version isn't compatible. 7. File is already an *.AS file. 8. The requested max size will create too many files. 9. File is not an *.AS file. 10. Process aborted. 11. There isn't enough disk space available to process file(s). 12. The internal data of this *.AS is corrupt/invalid. 13. Reserved. 14. Lzh file is corrupt/invalid. 15. A file exists that AS wanted to create. 16. Couldn't find the requested file. 17. The file name given isn't specific enough. 18. The [max size] value is invalid. 19. Reserved. 20. Reserved. 21. Reserved. 22. Reserved. 23. Unknown/All other errors. This is the format of AS files (in C notation): struct as_header { unsigned long signature; // always 0x10af5341 unsigned int version; char file_name[13]; struct ftime file_date_time; // Borland C++ ftime struct int file_attributes; unsigned long this_file_size; unsigned long total_file_size; unsigned long this_file_num; unsigned long total_file_num; unsigned long crc32; unsigned long original_crc32; }; This header will always be present at the beginning of an AS file. Technical Data LHA Chunker was written entirely in C/C++ using Borland C++ 3.1. This is a partial explanation of LC's speed and size. The other main reason for LC's speed and size is that I access the LHA file directly vs. making calls to the LHA software. Technical Support For technical support I (Scott Jibben) can be reached at the following on-line systems: The Warehouse BBS: 612-379-8272 1200-57600 baud V.32bis/HST 16.8K (N81) - 6 Lines. The Warehouse is my first (main) line of support. Since I am a co-sysop of this BBS, I usually log on several times a day to check for email. This BBS is a subscription BBS, however anyone logging on will receive access rights to the file area where my software can be downloaded for FREE and a message area that is dedicated to my software. Terrapin Station BBS: 612-623-0152 1200-9600 V.32 (N81) Terrapin Station is the second home for LHA Chunker. This BBS is used by many professional computer people. One of it's focal points is programming, but there are several other topics that are discussed on this BBS. I usually check into this BBS at least once a day. Painters Workshop BBS: 414-722-0242 1200-14400 V.32bis/HST (N81) Painters Workshop is Distribution Site #003 for Jibben Software. If you need help with Jibben Software products the sysop, Duane Heller will be able to help you. I log onto this BBS once every two weeks. Duane contacts me at least once a week. CompuServe: My CompuServe ID is 72657,3303. Feel free to send me an E-Mail any time. I usually log on to CompuServe at least once a day. Acknowledgments I would like to thank those people that have assisted me in the development of this software: Travis Carter, sysop of the Warehouse BBS, for testing the software and providing a message forum for supporting software written by me. Howard Ekman, sysop of Terrapin Station DBBS, for providing a second home for LHA Chunker. Keith Ledbetter, author of the BEST file finding utility money can buy; Supersonic Search Tool (SST), for providing valuable information about the internal file formats of several archiving software packages. This saved me valuable time and effort. Kenjirou Okubo and Haruyasu Yoshizaki (Author of LHA) for testing LC to ensure it works properly with LHA archive files. My wife and daughter, for the patient support and active involvement in getting this business rolling. Finally, all of the people who've registered my software. I really appreciate it! Disclaimers, etc. Jibben Software specifically disclaims all other warranties, expressed or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, functionality or data integrity. In no event shall Jibben Software be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damages. Borland is a registered trademark of Borland International, Inc.