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1993-03-25
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AC - The Archive Converter V3.00a By Donald M. Langhorne
Copyright (c) 1991,1993; All rights reserved;
==========================================================
Tips:
-----
The following describes some features that are available to AC, that may not
be readily apparent to the user. Some are undocumented features that the
user must understand they use at their own risk!
--------------------
| Updating Archives|
--------------------
Updating an archive to a newer version. For example, you have an archive
that was created using PkZip V1.10. You would like to update it to
PKZip V2.04. The first thing to keep in mind is that a newer version
of an archiver should ALWAYS be able to extract older versions, and
therefore you do NOT need to define two different archivers, just the
newer one. It is worth noting that some archivers may require an extra
switch to read older versions. You should consult the docs for that
archiver, then add the switch to the dearchiver definition.
Below are the three methods available to accomplish this task:
1) UI(User Interface) Mode: Either press F3 for options and turn
updating ON, or just press the <ALT-U> key to toggle this feature
ON and OFF. Highlight the archive you wish to convert and press
<ENTER>.
2) CL(Command Line) Mode: when you type in the command line switches
add the switch '/U' and it will toggle the update feature to ON.
3) Set it as default:(Registered users ONLY!) You can run ACSetup
and set this feature to be ON by default. You should remember that
if this is set to ON, and you use the switch '/U' on the command
line, IT WILL TURN THIS FEATURE OFF. You would not need to add the
switch '/U' if it were set to ON.
NOTE: If you use wildcards on the command line, AC will NOT convert
like archives. For example if you want to update 3 ZIP files
to the newer version and you type AC /Z *.*, AC will NOT convert
any ZIP files. You would need to be more specific. Some examples
are: AC /Z *.zip ; AC /Z myfile1.zip myfile2.zip myfile3.zip
---------------------------------------
|Using Advanced Command Line WildCards|
---------------------------------------
I have tried to make AC as flexible as possible when converting
archives from the command line. Except the for the first two, you
can chain these commands one after the other to convert just the
archives you want. With very few exceptions, the following
wildcard combinations are possible:
-- '*' when you specify this on the command line, AC will
automatically convert ALL archive files found to the desired type.
It will however not convert any archives that are already of the
desired type(See Above).
-- '*.*' Would do the same this as '*'. See previous item.
-- '*.<EXT>' where <EXT> is the extension(IE ZIP) that MUST already
be defined by ACSetup. This will convert ALL files having the
extension of <EXT>.
-- '<FILENAME> Where you do NOT specify an extension. If you have
an archive file called THISZIP.ZIP and you want to convert it
to an ARJ file, you can simply type: AC /J THISZIP
AC actually translates this to convert THISZIP.* Which would
convert ANY files that have the same name, and all extensions
that have been defined in ACSetup.
-- '<FILENAME.EXT> This is the most specific method, where you
specify the complete file name. AC will convert just that file.
-- In addition to the above, below are some more wildcard assignments
that would be supported by AC:
AC /Z m*.ARJ : will convert ALL ARJ files matching the criterion
m*
AC /Z m1??34.LZH : will convert ALL LZH files that match the
criterion 'm1??34'
Below are a few command line wildcards that would NOT work and
some alternate methods to get the result you want:
-- AC /Z MYFILE. : Will fail, use AC /Z MYFILE (No Period)
-- AC /Z *.A* : I have not tested this, so cannot say that
it won't work, but don't think it would.
Instead, use AC /Z *.ARC *.ARJ etc..
-----------------------------------------------
|Adding Comments to Archives During Conversion| *** Undocumented ***
-----------------------------------------------
It is possible to add comments to archives when using AC, however I
will not garauntee a fix if you have problems. When you define an
archiver in ACSetup, you can enter ANY valid command line options
as a default switch. If you enter the switch to create comments for
archive files, when AC converts the archive, you will be able to enter
comments. As of this version, AC uses DOS windows for output during
conversion, and you will not be able to see all 80 characters across.
The length of the window is about 45 characters. When the archive
asks for the comment, you may not be able to see all that you type, if
you type past the edge of the window. This does not mean that the
characters you type that you can't see don't get accepted, you just
can't see them.
Example: To create comments for ZIP files, you would normally add the
'-C' switch if you were creating a ZIP file from DOS.
Run ACSetup, goto the archive defintion for ZIP, and add the
'-C' switch to one of the four available normal switches.
When you then convert an archive to ZIP, You will be able to
enter comments, just as if you ran it from the DOS prompt.