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-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ver:0.75c0 HPACK - Multi-System Archiver 28/12/91 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The HPACK Multi-System Archiver is an archiver that was written to allow the transfer of archived data to different systems. In the past archivers have traditionally been available for single systems only, eg PKZIP(tm) and LHARC for the PC, Larc for the Amiga, StuffIt(tm) and Compactor for the Macintosh, and tar and compress for UNIX systems (while these archivers are available on other systems, their use is not widespread). It is intended to make HPACK a more universal archiver by offering versions for the following computer systems: * MSDOS systems * OS/2 systems (currently in development) * Archimedes (currently in development) * Macintosh (currently in development) * Atari ST (planned) * Commodore Amiga (planned) * UNIX * Apple IIgs (currently in development) * VMS (planned) * Primos (planned) * Any other system which people offer to port it to Using HPACK =========== HPACK is run with the following command: HPACK command [-options] archive [filenames.....][@scriptfiles.....] Allowed commands are: [A] - Add files to an archive. [X] - Extract files from an archive. [V] - Directory of files inside an archive. [P] - View a file within an archive. [T] - Test the integrity of an archive. [D] - Delete files from an archive. [F] - Freshen files to an archive. [R] - Replace files in an archive. [U] - Update files to an archive. Allowed options are: -b - Specify a base pathname for files. -c - Encryption options. -d - Directory options (Mkdir, Rmdir, Mvdir, path options etc). -e - Add error recovery information. -f - Store file attributes. -i - Interactive mode - prompt for all files. -k - Overwrite existing archives. -m - Create multipart archive. -o - Overwrite on extraction options (All, None, Smart). -p - Store directories. -r - Recurse through subdirectories. -s - Stealth mode. -t - Touch files on extraction. -v - View files options (Files, Directories, All). -w - Treat files as archive comments. -x - Translate options for text files. -z - Extended options (system-specific). Commands, options, and archive and file names may be given in upper or lower case (they are given in uppercase in the examples which follow merely for consistency). Options may be lumped together or may be given seperately preceded by the '-' delimiter. The default archive extension is '.HPK'. HPACK will always add this extension, changing any other given extension if necessary. Note that some quantum physics theories suggest that when the user is not directly observing the HPACK archive, it may cease to exist or will exist only in a vague and indeterminate state; in this case the existence of the '.HPK' extension cannot be guaranteed. The filenames may be zero or more filenames, defaulting to all files if no filenames are given (in other words archive all files in the current directory, or dearchive/view all files in the archive). HPACK uses UNIX-style wildcards (which are described in more detail below in the section "HPACK Wildcards"), and will accept UNIX-style directory seperators in place of the usual ones used by the systems' command interpreter, so that for example under MSDOS: HPACK A ARCHIVE /C/WORK/FILES is a perfectly acceptable alternative to the more usual: HPACK A ARCHIVE \C\WORK\FILES The scriptfiles are names of files preceded with an '@' character. When HPACK encounters one of these it will treat the filename as a file containing a list of files to process. Script files and normal filenames may be freely mixed on the command line. See the section "HPACK Script Files" below for more information. HPACK Wildcards: ================ When HPACK scans any filename that has been given to it, it will check for the presence in the filename of any of the special characters: * ? [ ] \ If one of these is detected, then the string of characters making up the filename will be treated as being a pattern for a filename, rather than the name of a specific file. These special characters have the following meanings when used in a filename string: * - Matches zero or more characters ? - Matches any one character [...] - Matches any of the enclosed range of characters '...' in turn. If two characters appearing in the pattern in alphabetical order are seperated by a dash '-', then any character in the alphabetic range between these two characters will be matched. This is a more selective version of the '?' form. [^...] - As above, but this time matches anything *not* in the enclosed range of characters '...'. \ - Treat the next character as a normal character rather than one of the special characters. This can be used to override the usual meaning of the '*', '?', '[]', and '\' characters. Note that the MSDOS version of HPACK uses '#' instead of '\' since DOS uses '\' in its pathnames. The case-sensitivity when handling filenames depends on the operating system HPACK is being run under. Under MSDOS, filenames are converted to uppercase, but are not case-sensitive; under OS/2, filenames are left as is, but are also not case sensitive (so that "FileName" will match "Filename", "FILENAME", and "filename"); under Unix, filenames are left as is, and are case sensitive, so that "makefile" and "Makefile" are treated as seperate names. These wildcards can be combined to create quite powerful expressions. For example, to match any file not beginning with an 'a', 'b', 'c', or 'f', and containing at least two characters, the required expression would be: [^a-cf]?* where the [^a-cf] would match anything but 'a', 'b', 'c', or 'f'; the '?' would match the second character required, and the '*' would match any remaining characters. For example, if we have an archive whose contents are: File1.Txt File2.Txt File3.Txt File4.Txt File5.Txt File6.Txt File7.Txt File8.Txt File9.Txt Index.Txt we could perform the following file matches on it: Expression: Matches files: * File1.Txt File2.Txt File3.Txt File4.Txt File5.Txt File6.Txt File7.Txt File8.Txt File9.Txt Index.Txt F* File1.Txt File2.Txt File3.Txt File4.Txt File5.Txt File6.Txt File7.Txt File8.Txt File9.Txt *4* File4.Txt FILE?.TXT File1.Txt File2.Txt File3.Txt File4.Txt File5.Txt File6.Txt File7.Txt File8.Txt File9.Txt FILE[1-4].TXT File1.Txt File2.Txt File3.Txt File4.Txt FILE[^1-4].TXT File5.Txt File6.Txt File7.Txt File8.Txt File9.Txt FILE[1-46].TXT File1.Txt File2.Txt File3.Txt File4.Txt File6.Txt FILE[^13-5].TXT File2.Txt File6.Txt File7.Txt File8.Txt File9.Txt Finally, note that these wildcards may not perform quite like the standard wildcards used by the system's command interpreter. For example under MSDOS to specify all files in a directory or archive, it is not necessary to use the usual sequence of "*.*". Instead simply typing "*" will match all the files in the archive (the DOS wildcards are in fact a bit of a hack - for example "*abc.*" will (incorrectly) match "*.*"). The extended wildcards act as true wildcards, so that "FILE.*" will not match "FILE" as it would under DOS, since there is a spurious "." in the DOS wildcard matching. These extended wildcards can be useful when extracting files which cannot normally be handled by the command interpreter from archives, for example to extract the file "Filename with spaces in it" from the archive ARCHIVE.HPK, you would type: HPACK X ARCHIVE FILENAME?WITH?SPACES?IN?IT where the '?' wildcard will match the spaces. Alternatively you can just type: HPACK X ARCHIVE FILENAME* which will do the same thing with a lot less typing involved. Another point is that these wildcards cannot be used to represent full regular expressions (the idea behind HPACK was to create an archiver, not a regular expression parser), so that, for example, '*?' will not work as an expression, and that they cannot be used inside pathnames (for example DATA/S*/FILE) as the UNIX wildcards can (adding this capability is in fact trivial, but since the extended wildcards are built on top of the usual operating system ones the resulting system runs very slowly). HPACK Commands: =============== [A] - Add files to an archive. The archive given in the command-line is opened, or created if it doesn't already exist, and is given the extension '.HPK' if this is not explicitly specified. Then all files given in the list of filenames are added to to it. Example: To add all files in the current directory to the archive ARCHIVE.HPK in the current directory: HPACK A ARCHIVE [X] - Extract files from an archive. All files are extracted from the archive given in the command line to the current directory. If the file already exists and no overwrite options are given (these are explained in the section "HPACK Options" below), you will be asked if you wish to overwrite it: File already exists - overwrite [y/n/a] 'Y' will replace the file with the file from the archive, 'N' will skip the extraction of this file, and 'A' will process all files from this point (in other words it will assume a 'Y' answer for each file from this point). In some cases the name of the file extracted will need to be translated to allow for the naming conventions of differnent operating systems. In these cases the original name will be printed, followed by the name it will be extracted under. On Apple systems data is divided into two sections in a file, a "data fork" and a "resource fork". Under DOS only the data fork will be extracted from an archive: the resource fork (which only Apple systems can make any use of) will be skipped. Example: To extract all files in ARCHIVE.HPK not beginning with an 'A' to the current directory: HPACK X ARCHIVE [^A]* [V] - Directory of which files are in an archive. If no view options are given (these are explained in the section "HPACK Options" below), a listing in the following format is produced: HPACK - The multi-system archiver Version 0.75c0 (shareware version) For MSDOS, OS/2, Macintosh, Apple IIgs, and UNIX Copyright (c) Peter Gutmann 1989 - 1991. Release date: 28/12/91 Archive is 'ARCHIVE.HPK' System Length Size Ratio Date Time Name ------ ------ ----- ----- ---- ---- ---- MSDOS 18537 6217 66% 04/05/90 11:32:48 README.TXT MSDOS 8301 3169 74% 27/12/90 21:02:39 LZSS.EXE UNIX 30061 9127 70% 24/11/89 16:52:57 compr.method.txt Mac 8481 3282 61% 22/12/90 08:58:52 Fast LZ Decoder using Bin... OS/2 0 0 0% 01/07/91 18:20:20 Comp.Test ------ ------ ------ ----- ---- 65380 21795 67% Total of 4 files Done The archive used is displayed, followed by a list of all the files within the archive. The fields for each file inside the archive are as follows: System: The system the file was archived under. Length: The length of the file when unarchived. Size: The size of the compressed file within the archive. Ratio: The ratio of the compressed file to the uncompressed file. Date: The creation date of the file within the archive. Time: The creation time of the file within the archive. Name: The name of the file within the archive. If the name is too long to fit on the screen then a '..' is appended to indicate this. In addition files may have a single character prepended to them: an asterisk '*' before the name indicates that this file has been encrypted, a dash '-' indicates that it includes authentication information, and a hash '#' indicates that it is both encrypted and includes authentication information. Note that the name within the archive may not be the same as the name given to the unarchived file since translation may be necessary to allow for the naming conventions of different operating systems. Finally the total length of all files within the archive, uncompressed and compressed, the overall compression ratio for the archive, and the number of files within the archive, is given. If any filespecs are given, only files which match those filespecs will be displayed. This is useful when you only want to extract certain files and would like to see how much space they will use. If more than one archive is viewed, a grand total of the size and number of files in all the archives viewed is printed. The type of information printed may be controlled by using the view options (which are explained in the section "HPACK Options" below). The default is to print all files in the root directory of an archive. If the root directory contains no files, the error message "Nothing to do" will be printed. To recursively display the contents of all subdirectories, the [-r]ecurse subdirectories option should be used. Example: To view the contents of any archives on drive A: HPACK V A:* [P] - Display files from within an archive. This option will output the contents of one or more files within an archive, with a prompt for more between files. The output can be redirected in the standard manner, for example: HPACK P DATA CONTENTS.DOC > PRN: will send the file CONTENTS.DOC from within the archive DATA.HPK to the printer, and: HPACK P DATA DESCRIPTION.DOC | MORE will display the file DESCRIPTION.DOC with page breaks on your screen. Example: To display the file README.TXT from within the archive ARCHIVE.HPK: HPACK P ARCHIVE README.TXT [T] - Test the integrity of an archive. HPACK will display the usual messages about extracting data as it unpacks and tests the data, and if any computed checksums do not match the checksum stored with the file when it was archived, will issue the following warning message: Warning: File checksum does not match computed checksum Otherwise HPACK will display: File tested OK Note that this test is also performed automatically on extracting a file from an archive. Example: To test the integrity of all executable files in the archive ARCHIVE.HPK: HPACK T ARCHIVE *.COM *.EXE [D] - Delete file from an archive. All files given in the command-line are deleted from the given archive. Example: To delete all Pascal program files from the archive ARCHIVE.HPK: HPACK D ARCHIVE *PAS [F] - Freshen files in an archive. The dates of all specified files in the archive are compared with the dates of the same files on disk. If the version on disk is more recent than the stored version, the stored version is replaced by the version on disk. Example: To freshen all files in the archive ARCHIVE.HPK: HPACK F ARCHIVE.HPK [R] - Replace files in an archive. All given files in the archive are replaced by their counterparts on disk. Example: To replace the all files which begin with the letters A-G in the archive ARCHIVE.HPK with their couterparts on disk: HPACK R ARCHIVE [A-G]* [U] - Update an archive. All specified files not already in the archive are added to the archive, and all files already in the archive are replaced if the version on disk is more recent than the version already in the archive. Example: To update the archive ARCHIVE.HPK with all files from the directory B:/DATA/JUNK: HPACK U ARCHIVE B:/DATA/JUNK Note that the last four options need to create temporary work files on disk. Thus it is necessary to have at least twice as much free disk space to work with as the total length of the archive. All other options use only the archive file, so it is possible to use them with minimal free disk space. HPACK Options: ============== -b - Specify a base pathname for all files. This option is followed by the pathname which HPACK will use as a base path for all files to be added to or extracted from an archive. This option is very convenient when adding a number of files in the same directory to an archive or when extracting an archive to a directory which is not the same as the current directory. It is also useful for handling archives which contain subdirectories. To add files to a subdirectory within HPACK, the base pathname is used to specify the path to the subdirectory, with the actual file pathname given being the path inside HPACK in which the file will be stored. In this case the argument given with the [-b]ase path option is the part of the pathname outside the archive, and the file pathname is the part of the pathname inside the archive. Example: To extract all files in the archive ARCHIVE.HPK to the directory D:/OUTPUT/DATA: HPACK X -BD:/OUTPUT/DATA ARCHIVE Example: To add the files FILE1, FILE2, TEXT, and PROGRAM.EXE, all in the directory D:/JUNK/DATA, to the archive ARCHIVE.HPK: HPACK A -BD:/JUNK/DATA ARCHIVE FILE[1-2] TEXT PROGRAM.EXE Example: To add the files in C:/JUNK/DATA/FILES to the archive ARCHIVE.HPK inside the archive directory DATA/FILES: HPACK A -BC:/JUNK ARCHIVE DATA/FILES/* -c - Encrypt/decrypt files in the archive using the NSEA encryption algorithm. This has an optional parameter of '1' or '2' which can be used to specify the level of encryption, defaulting to Level 1 if no parameter is given. Level 1 is adequate for most purposes, while Level 2 is recommended for high-security applications. Using this option will prompt for a passphrase before any files are added, followed by a request to retype the passphrase for security if the data is being encrypted. The passphrase, which is not echoed to the screen, should be a minimum of six and a maximum of fifty characters long, and may contain any combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, spaces, and punctuation symbols. Be warned that forgetting or losing this key will present you with a fairly substantial exercise in cryptography. Note that using the encryption feature will result in the compressed file expanding by between 0 and 7 bytes due to the necessity of padding the data out with random noise to the block size used by the NSEA encryption algorithm. Example: To encrypt all files to be added to the archive ARCHIVE.HPK with an encryption level of 2: HPACK A -C2 ARCHIVE In addition, HPACK allows entire archives (rather than just the files in them) to be encrypted, meaning that not even the archive directory can be read by someone who does not have the decryption password. This feature is present but not currently supported. In order to comply with US export restrictions on encryption software HPACK has currently had the encryption code removed (see the section "HPACK Archive/Data Authentication" below). In future a version with full encryption may be available from non-US sites. -d - Directory options. This hideously complicated command has a large number of suboptions, which are as follows: <Note: Some of these aren't implemented yet: Feedback on whether this way of doing things is a good idea or not would be appreciated>. -dm - Mkdir: Create the given directories. <Not yet implemented - if necessary this can be faked by using 'hpack a -da <path> <non-matching filespec>' where path is the new directory to add and the non-matching filespec ensures that only the new directory, but none of the files in it, are added> -dr - Rmdir: Delete the given directories. <Not yet implemented> -dv - Mvdir: Move the given directory into the second given directory. Warning: Through injudicious use of this command it is possible to create circular directory references, or to cut off entire directory trees. Do not try to move directories into subdirectories of themselves! (Or should HPACK check for this??) <Not yet implemented> -da - Store all directories scanned, even if they contain no files. This option is useful for storing entire filesystems inside archives. -dn - Do not create the directory inside the archive if it doesn't already exist. If an attempt is made to add a file to a nonexistant directory, HPACK will exit with an error message. Example: To delete the directory DATA/JUNK inside the archive ARCHIVE.HPK: HPACK A -DR ARCHIVE DATA/JUNK Note the use of the [A]dd command as a dummy command: In this case the main command is ignored and only the directory option is used (ICK!). Example: To move all directories below and including DATA/JUNK in the archive ARCHIVE.HPK into the directory STUFF: HPACK A -DV ARCHIVE DATA/JUNK STUFF Example: To add all files and directories (even empty ones) in and below the current directory to the archive ARCHIVE.HPK: HPACK A -RPDA ARCHIVE -e - Add error recovery information to the archive. HPACK will write extra information with the file data which may be used to recover the data if the main archive directory is seriously damaged. This recovery information will increase the amount of data stored for each file by about 20-25 bytes. Example: To add all text files in the directory A:/DATA to archive ARCHIVE.HPK, adding error recovery information for each file: HPACK -E ARCHIVE A:/DATA/*.TXT -f - Store file attributes. Many operating systems support two levels of files, those classed as 'normal', and those classed as 'hidden', 'invisible', 'system files', and so on (for example the Macintosh and MSDOS both have these file types). By default HPACK will only add normal files to an archive. However using the [-f]ile attributes flag allows archiving of files with special attributes as well as full restoration of attributes when archives are extracted. In addition, HPACK will attempt to translate the attributes of files from different systems into equivalent file attributes for the local system. This has varying degrees of effectiveness: Many of the Macintosh, MSDOS, and Apple IIgs attributes are equivalent so a direct translation is possible; UNIX, the Archimedes, and the Apple IIgs also have some of the read/write attributes in common, and have a rough equivalent of a read-only file attribute in these attributes; and QNX has no equivalent file attributes. If the [-p]ath store option is used HPACK will also store directory attributes, and set the directory attributes to the stored values when creating the directories on extraction. Example: To extract all files in the root directory of the archive ARCHIVE.HPK, restoring all possible attribute information: HPACK X -F ARCHIVE -i - Interactive mode - prompt for each file before it is processed. This options works for all commands except [V]iew files (for which it would be pointless). Before the file is processed, HPACK will ask whether you wish to process this file; answering 'Y' will handle the file, 'N' will skip the file, and 'A' will process all files from this point (in other words it will assume a 'Y' answer for each file from this point). Example: To add all files in the current directory to the archive ARCHIVE.HPK, prompting for each file before adding it: HPACK A -I ARCHIVE * -k - Overwrite the archive if it already exists. This only works with the [A]dd command. Normally, using the [A]dd command will add any new files to the end of an existing archive. Using the [-k]ill switch will erase the old archive and create a new one. Example: To create the archive ARCHIVE.HPK on drive A:, overwriting it if it already exists, and add all files in the current directory to it: HPACK A -K A:ARCHIVE -m - Create a multipart archive. Normally when HPACK runs out of disk space it will exit with an error message. When this option is used HPACK will instead prompt for another disk and continue the archive on the new disk. In this manner it is possible to spread an archive which would be too large for a single disk over several disks. Due to their rather special nature, multipart archives do not support the [D]elete, [F]reshen, [R]eplace, or [U]pdate commands (since, for example, deleting a file from the middle of an archive which stretches over 15 disks would be quite time-consuming). All other operations are supported however. Example: To fully back up hard drive C: onto drive A: HPACK A -KMFRPDA A:ARCHIVE C:/* This will create the archive ARCHIVE.HPK on one or more disks in drive A: containing the complete contents of the drive C: (the options used are [-k]ill existing archive, [-m]ultipart archive, store [-f]ile and directory attributes, [-r]ecurse through all subdirectories, store file [-p]aths, and for [-d]irectories store [a]ll of them, even empty ones). Once each disk has been completely filled, HPACK will prompt: Please insert the next disk and press a key followed by the message: Continuing... as it continues the archive on the next disk inserted. Note the use of the [-k]ill existing archive option to overwrite any existing archive of the same name which may already exist on the disk - if HPACK finds an archive of the given name already on the disk and the [-k]ill option is not specified, it will not, by default, overwrite it but will exit with an error message. Multipart archives have a minimum size of around 500 bytes (roughly the size of a disk sector for many disk formats - storing archive parts of less than 500-odd bytes would be pointless). If a section of a multi- part archive is less than approximately 500 bytes HPACK will skip it and move it to the next (hopefully less full) disk after printing the following warning: Warning: Archive section too short, skipping... If a multipart archive is small enough to fit onto a single disk, HPACK will store the archive as a standard archive instead of a multipart one. Example: To view the files in the previously created multipart archive: HPACK V A:ARCHIVE HPACK will automatically determine whether the archive is a multipart archive or not so the [-m]ultipart command is only necessary when creating the archive. Since HPACK stores its directory information at the end of the archive, only the last disk or disks of the archive must be read to obtain the archive directory. Initially HPACK will prompt: Please insert the disk containing the last part of this archive and press a key. If the wrong disk is inserted, HPACK will prompt: This is part <n> of a multipart archive. Please insert the disk containing the last part of this archive and press a key. where <n> is the part number of this section of the archive. Example: To extract the single file LETTER.TXT from the previously created archive: HPACK X A:ARCHIVE LETTER.TXT HPACK will then prompt for the disk which contains the file LETTER.TXT: Please insert the disk containing part <n> of this archive and press a key. where <n> is the part number of the archive section which contains LETTER.TXT. Example: To fully restore hard drive C: from the previously created archive: HPACK X -RP A:ARCHIVE HPACK will prompt for the last part of the archive as usual and then for each disk in turn as it extracts the files from the archive. -o - Specify overwrite options for file extraction. Normally when HPACK tries to extract a file which already exists, it will prompt for whether the existing file should be overwritten or not. With this switch it is possible to specify a default action to be taken. There are three possibilities: -oa - Automatically overwrite [A]ll existing files on extraction. -on - Automatically overwrite [N]one of the existing files on extraction. -os - [S]mart overwrite. HPACK will change the extension of the file to be extracted to ".000", and try to extract this file. If a file of this name already exists, the extension will be changed to ".001" and so on until it is possible to extract the file. This option is very useful for files that have been archived on a system which allows filenames which are longer or more complex than those allowed by the local system and which due to the filename being truncated or translated end up with identical names. -op - [P]rompt for new filename. HPACK will ask for a new filename and try to use that name, repeating until a non-conflicting filename is given. Example: To extract all files from the archive ARCHIVE.HPK to the current directory, skipping any files that already exist: HPACK X -ON ARCHIVE -p - Store directories. This will create directories inside the archive corresponding to the directories containing the file(s) being archived, in effect allowing you to archive entire directory trees. HPACK will add directories traversed only if there are files contained in them. To add all directories regardless of whether they contain files or not, use the [-d]irectories [a]ll option (see section on -d options above). Example: To add all files in all directories, along with the directories themselves, in and below the current directory to the archive ARCHIVE.HPK: HPACK A -RP ARCHIVE * -r - Recurse through subdirectories. HPACK will step through all sub- directories of the current directory, and add all files with names matching those given on the command line. Example: To add all files in all directories in and below the current directory to the archive ARCHIVE.HPK: HPACK A -R ARCHIVE * -s - Run in stealth mode. All messages except warnings and error messages are suppressed. HPACK will automatically turn on stealth mode if it detects it is running in the background on operating systems which support background operation. Example: To add all files in the current directory to all archives in the current directory, without printing the usual progress reports to the screen: HPACK A -S * -t - Touch all files and directories on extraction. All file and directory dates and times will be set to the date/time they were extracted instead of the time they were archived. Example: To extract all files from the archive /DATA/ARCHIVE.HPK, and leave the file dates as the time of extraction: HPACK X -T DATA/ARCHIVE -v - View options. Normally when the [V]iew command is used, HPACK will print all the directories and files in an archive. With this options it is possible to specify which parts of the archive are to be viewed. There are three possible options: -vf - Display only the files within the archive. -vd - Display only the directories within the archive. -va - Display all files, directories, and subdirectories of directories within the archive. This is the same as a recursive directory command. -vs - Sort files. Normally files are displayed in the order in which they are stored within the archive. Using this option will sort the files by name before displaying them. Example: To print all the files, but not any directories or subdirectories, in the archive ARCHIVE.HPK: HPACK V -VF ARCHIVE.HPK -w - Treat file(s) as archive comments. This makes the [A]dd, [D]elete, [F]reshen, [R]eplace, and [U]pdate commands work for archive comments instead of normal files. Archive comments are files which are displayed when the [V]iew archive command is used, and may contain text describing the contents of the archive, ANSI extended characters, graphics, digitised sound, and so on. The MSDOS version of HPACK will currently only handle the displaying of plain text and ANSI-text type archive comments. Comments can be added, deleted, replaced, and so on just like normal files. Subdirectories can contain their own comments, and each directory can contain multiple comment files. In addition comment filenames are not treated as normal archive filenames, so a directory can contain a comment file and a normal archived file of the same name. Possible archive comment types are: -w - Plain text comment. This can be entered in free-form since HPACK will automatically word wrap the text to fit the screen size. Plain text comments may also contain formatting commands which control the way the text is displayed. For more information on formatting the text comments, see the extended documentation file HPACKEXT.DOC. -wa - ANSI text comment. This type of comment can contain the extended character set used by IBM PC's, as well as ANSI escape codes. No reformatting of any type is done on ANSI comments. Note that the plain text comment type is preferred, since many systems cannot display the extended ANSI character set or interpret ANSI escape codes. Also note that if an ANSI comment is stored as plain text HPACK will quietly delete all extended characters and ANSI escape codes when it displays the comment, to make it conform to the ASCII character set. -wg - GIF format graphics comment. Display of this comment format is generally only suported on systems running graphics-based user interfaces. Example: To view all comment-type files in the archive ARCHIVE.HPK as files instead of displaying them as comments: HPACK V -W ARCHIVE.HPK -x - Text file translate options. Different systems store text files in different formats, for example under Unix, these are stored in ASCII format with a linefeed at the end of each line; under MSDOS, there are carriage return/linefeed pairs at the end of each line; and on the Macintosh, there are carriage returns at the end of each line. Some systems store text in a non-ANSI format altogether, for example IBM systems which use the EBCDIC character set, and Prime systems which use their own bizarre text encoding technique. Using this option it is possible to specify translation of different character systems and end-of-line markers to the one used by the local system. In most cases the [-x]late option will suffice, however it is possible to override the translation using the following options: -x - Smart translate. HPACK will attempt to translate all files it recognises as text files from the textfile format used on the system the file was archived on. In most cases this option will be the only one necessary. -xr - Treat carriage return (ASCII 13) as end-of-line marker. The Macintosh stores text this way. -xl - Treat linefeed (ASCII 10) as end-of-line marker. Text on Amigas and UNIX systems is stored in this manner. -xc - Treat carriage return/linefeed pairs as end-of-line marker. MSDOS and OS/2 store text files like this. -xxnn-Treat the one- or two-character hexadecimal value 'n' or 'nn' as the character to use as the end-of-line delimiter. For example when moving textfiles from a QNX system (which uses the RS character, ASCII 30 or 1E hex), the option would be -xx1e. -xe - Translate the character set from EBCDIC to ASCII. Text on IBM systems is stored this way. -xp - Translate the character encoding from that used on Prime systems to ASCII. -xa - Translate from ASCII to ASCII. The textfile translation works by first translating entire character sets (either ASCII, Prime ASCII or EBCDIC) if necessary, and then translating the end-of-line characters, depending on the options specified. The end-of-line translation options are only available where they would make sense (for example the ability to translate linefeed to linefeed isn't particularly useful). The possible translation options are shown below, with LF being the linefeed character, CR being carriage return, and CRLF being carriage return/linefeed pairs: To | MSDOS Unix Macintosh From | OS/2 Amiga ----------+----------------------------------------------- MSDOS | [-xc] [-xc] OS/2 | --- CRLF -> LF CRLF -> CR | Unix | [-xl] [-xl] Amiga | LF -> CRLF --- LF -> CR | | [-xr] [-xr] Macintosh | CR -> CRLF CR -> LF --- | Example: To extract all files with the extension .TXT from the archive ARCHIVE.HPK, translating linefeed characters into whatever end-of-line character the local system uses: HPACK X -XL ARCHIVE *.TXT Example: To extract all files with the extension .TXT from the archive ARCHIVE.HPK, translating the files from EBCDIC to ASCII, and translating all carriage return characters to the end-of-line character used by the local system: HPACK X -XEXR ARCHIVE *.TXT -z - Extended options. These are highly system-specific and in general will only be present on one particular version of HPACK. They either support the storing/extraction of system-specific information in archives, or the special handling of data which has been archived on another system. The recognised options are: -zlower - UNIX version only. Force all file and directory names to lowercase. Some systems store file and directory names in uppercase only. Using this option all names will be converted to lowercase before any operations (such as [V]iew archive, [X]tract from archive, and so on), are performed on them. When processing MSDOS archives under UNIX the use of the -[zlower] option is recommended. -s - MSDOS version only. Check all files for [s]afe extraction. MSDOS has a serious problem in that when a file with the same name as a device driver is extracted (for example 'CON', 'COM1', or 'LPT1') it will force the contents of that file into the device driver. The damage can be minor for devices like 'CLOCK$' (it will at a minimum mangle the system date and time, perhaps scramble the CMOS ram, or cause the system to hang - even the changing of system dates can cause problems on a system running a computer bulletin board which relies on correct timestamps), all the way through to very serious for devices like 'SMARTAAR' (it will corrupt the disk cache and therefore corrupt the drives being cached). The [s]afe option will check each file before extracting it, and if it corresponds to a device driver will print the warning: File corresponds to device driver - skipping and move on to the next file. The only way in which HPACK will allow a file of this type to be extracted is by using the [o]verwrite [p]rompt option, in which you will be prompted for a new filename to extract under. Even [o]verwrite [s]mart is unsafe since the peculiar handling of device drivers by DOS makes the automatic substitution of a new filename very difficult. Filenames which can cause these problems are virtually unheard-of - they would have to be created deliberately by a malicious user, in which case there are few limits on the potential damage they can cause. HPACK Script Files: =================== Whenever HPACK encounters a filename beginning with an '@' char it treats the rest of the filename as a file containing a list of files to process combined with commands which control the operation of HPACK. Script files have the following format: - Leading spaces/tabs (whitespace) are ignored. - Lines with a '#' as the first non-whitespace character followed by at least one whitespace character are treated as comment lines. For compatibility with future versions of HPACK which will include scripting there should always be at least one whitespace character after the '#'. If HPACK finds a non-whitespace character following a '#', it will try and interpret it as a script command. If it cannot interpret the command, it will warn: Warning: Unknown script command - All other lines are treated as filenames for HPACK to process. - Lines may be terminated by either linefeeds, carriage returns, or carriage return/linefeed pairs (the latter being the DOS default method of storing text files). A sample script is: # Sample script file # Save latest work c:/users/peterg/hpack/src/*.c c:/users/peterg/hpack/src/*.h c:/users/peterg/hpack/src/asm/*.asm # Save correspondence d:/spool/mail/* Note that the script files themselves are not subject to being overridden by the base path specified with the -b option (see "HPACK Options" above). However filenames given within the script file will be overridden by the base path. Example: To freshen the archive ARCHIVE.HPK with all the files in the files matching SCRIPT* as well as MAIL.TXT and COMPMAIL.TXT: HPACK F ARCHIVE MAIL.TXT @SCRIPT* COMPMAIL.TXT HPACK Archive Integrity: ======================== HPACK checks the integrity of files stored within an archive by encoding a continuous checksum as part of each file when it is archived, and decoding it as the file is extracted. As soon as an error is encountered, HPACK will skip over the rest of the file and move on to the next one. If the file checksums differ then it may be reasonably assumed that there is an error in the extracted data. This is important: The entire physical universe, including HPACK itself, may one day collapse back into an infinitely small space. Should another universe subsequently re-emerge, the integrity of HPACK archives in that universe cannot be guaranteed. HPACK also checksums the archive directory. If an error is found in the directory information, the message: Warning: Archive directory corrupted. Continue (y/n) will be displayed. Hitting 'N' at this point will abort any attempts to process the archive, hitting 'Y' will process the (damaged) archive. HPACK will attempt some error recovery in this case (for example files and directories which seem to be in impossible directories will be moved into the root directory), and some files may be able to be recovered. If error recovery information (specified with the [-e]rror recovery option (see "HPACK Options" above)) is present, chances of recovering data from an archive with a corrupted directory are greatly enhanced. HPACK Archive/Data Authentication: ================================== HPACK includes provisions for authenticating archived data by adding a unique digital signature to either entire archives or individual files within an archive. This works exactly like a normal signature on a piece of paper, proving that the sender was the true originator of the file or archive. Forgery of a digital signature of this sort is computationally infeasible, and once the data has been signed the sender cannot later disavow his or her signature. In addition a cryptographic checksum of the data or archive is made and included as part of the signature to allow detection of any attempts to tamper with the data. Like forging a signature, defeating the checksum is computationally infeasible. When the data in an archive with authentication information present is extracted or tested, an authentication check is performed for the entire archive before it is processed. The authentication system used is based on Philip Zimmermanns excellent PGP encryption software and uses the same data formats as PGP. In order for the authenticity check to be possible, a file called KEYRING.PUB which contains the public key of the person or organization who signed the file or archive is needed. Like PGP, HPACK will either search for this file in the current directory or use the environment variable PGPPATH to look for the file. The PGPPATH variable should contain the path to the KEYRING.PUB file, so for example if KEYRING.PUB was in the directory C:/UTILS/PGP, then PGPPATH should be set with: set PGPPATH=C:/UTILS/PGP/ If the PGPPATH directory exists and there is a KEYRING.PUB file present in both the current and the PGPPATH directories, the keyring in the PGPPATH directory will be searched first, and if no matching key is found the local keyring will be checked. This means that by default the master keyring is always used, overriding any local keys if necessary. The data in the archive, or the archive itself, will then be checked for validity using this key. If the authentication check succeeds, the message: Good signature from <name>. Signature made on <date>. will be displayed, with <name> being the name of the person or organization who made the signature, and <date> being the date the signature was made (on MSDOS systems the signature time may be off by a few hours since DOS doesn't adjust the time for time zones). If the check fails, the message: Warning: Bad signature, doesn't match file contents. Bad signature from <name>. Signature made on <date>. If the archive is a multipart archive (for which the authentication check can take some time since an archive stretching over several disks needs to be processed), the message: Verify multipart archive authenticity [y/n] is displayed. 'Y' will check the authenticity of the archive, 'N' will skip the authenticity check and continue with processing the archive. The signature scheme used is the RSA public key cryptosystem (for more information on this and the PGP encryption package see the extended documentation HPACKEXT.DOC). This scheme involves the manipulation of very large numbers, which can be quite time-consuming on slow systems, where the signature check can take several minutes. Unlike encryption software, authentication code is not export-restricted from the US. The U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 22 which includes sub-chapter M, "International Traffic in Arms Regulations" (ITAR), makes an exception for software that can only be used for authentication purposes and cannot not be used for general-purpose encipherment and decipherment, as is the case for HPACK in its current state with the encryption code removed. HPACK Error Messages: ===================== The error messages given by HPACK are the following: [ Nothing to do ] The command you have given resulted in no changes being made to the archive(s) specified. There can be several reasons for this: The files you specified were not on the disk; there were no matching files to freshen /update; or there were no matching files in the root directory of the archive (HPACK will not, by default, check subdirectories: To handle subdirectories you must either give the full path within the archive, or use the [-r]ecurse subdirectories option). [ Out of disk space ] There is not enough room on the current disk to finish archiving/ unarchiving a file. [ Unknown command ] You have given HPACK a command which it doesn't understand. Check the section "HPACK Commands" for valid HPACK commands. [ Unknown option ] You have given HPACK an option which it doesn't understand. Check the section "HPACK Options" for valid HPACK options. [ Unknown overwrite option ] You have specified an unknown option for the -o overwrite switch. This error may also be caused by forgetting to specify an option for the switch, in which case HPACK will treat the character following the -o as the option. [ Unknown view option ] You have specified an unknown option for the -o view options switch. This error may also be caused by forgetting to specify an option for the switch, in which case HPACK will treat the character following the -v as the option. [ Unknown directory option ] You have specified an unknown option for the -d directory options switch. This error may also be caused by forgetting to specify an option for the switch, in which case HPACK will treat the character following the -d as the option. [ Bad wildcard format ] You have used an incorrect format when using wildcards in filenames. [ Wildcard expression too complex ] You have used a very complex wildcard sequence, and HPACK doesn't have enough room to process it fully. Try simplifying the expression, or break it up into seperate simpler expressions. [ Not an HPACK archive ] The supposed archive file does not appear to be an archive created by HPACK. [ Cannot open archive file ] HPACK cannot open the archive file. [ Cannot open data file ] HPACK cannot open the data file to dearchive data to. [ Cannot open temp file ] HPACK cannot open the temporary work file it needs for the [D]elete, [F]reshen, [R]eplace, or [U]pdate commands. [ Cannot open script file ] HPACK cannot open the script file containing the list of files to process and HPACK control commands. [ Cannot access base directory ] The base directory you have specified does not exist. [ Cannot create directory ] HPACK cannot create a directory to unarchive files into. [ Cannot override base path ] This error message arises when using the -b base path option and either a drive specifier is given in the pathname of one of the files to process or the base path includes an actual path and the file pathname is specified as being off the root directory. Since the base path is prepended to the pathname of the file, the pathname cannot contain a drive specifier or absolute directory reference in it. [ Unknown archiving method - skipping ] The version of HPACK you are using is unfamiliar with the archiving method used for this file, and is skipping to the next file. [ Data is encrypted - skipping ] The data in this file is encrypted, and no means of decryption has been supplied by the user; therefore HPACK cannot process it and will move on to the next file. [ Cannot read encrypted archive ] The entire archive (rather than just the data in it) is encrypted, and HPACK cannot decrypt it to read it. [ Cannot update deleted archive ] You have used the [-k]ill original archive option along with the [R]eplace, [F]reshen, or [U]pdate options. [ Passwords not the same ] When encrypting data, HPACK will ask you to retype the password for security. If the second password doesn't match the first password, this error message is issued. [ Password must be between 6 and 50 characters long ] The passphrase you have entered is either less than six characters (making it dangerously short), or more than 50 characters (making it excessively long). [ Bad keyfile ] The keyfile containing the keys used for decrypting/authenticating data is corrupted. [ Bad security information ] The information used for authenticating the data in an archive has been corrupted. [ Out of memory ] There is not enough memory available for HPACK to continue. [ Path too long ] You have used more than 63 characters (the limit set by MS-DOS) in a pathname. [ Path not found ] You have asked HPACK to add a file to a nonexistant directory inside an archive. [ Bad character in filename ] Input lines in script files are given a basic check for being valid filenames. If blatantly incorrect characters are discovered in a line of input this warning will be printed. [ Errors detected in script file ] Errors (either illegal characters or too-long pathnames) have been detected in the script file. [ Maximum level of errors detected in script file ] More than 10 errors have been detected in the script file. This error message generally results from erroneously specifying a non-script file as a script file. [ Too many levels of directory nesting ] You have tried to go down through more than 15 levels of subdirectories using the [-r]ecurse subdirectories option. [ Too much auxiliary data ] This file has too much auxiliary data attached to it (comments, attributes, icons, security information, and so on). Each file can have a maximum of 64K of auxiliary data attached. [ Stopped at user request ] The user pressed Ctrl-Break during the archiving process. [ Warning: Truncated EOF padding ] In some implementations of the Xmodem and Ymodem transfer protocols, CPM end-of-file characters (Ctrl-Z's) are appended to the end of the transmitted file. When HPACK detects these spurious characters on the end of an archive, it will truncate the archive to its correct size and issue this warning message. [ Warning: Archive section too short, skipping... ] If part of a multipart archive is less than approximately 100 bytes long, HPACK will not attempt to create the archive but will move the data to the next, hopefully less full, disk. [ File error ] A miscellaneous type of file error occurred during the archiving process (for example some sort of network error). The message itself will contain more detail about the precise type of error. [ Internal error ] Some form of internal error occurred in HPACK. Contact the author. [ Long argument format not supported in DOS version ] Some versions of HPACK, notably the UNIX one, support a long argument format signalled by the -z switch, which is used to handle OS-specific options. The DOS version of HPACK does not support this argument format since there is no need for it under DOS. Disclaimer -=-=-=-=-= This program is guaranteed to perform as claimed, excluding any delays caused or enhanced by war, civil commotion, or rioting, whether declared, spontaneous, reprehensible, or justified; undue pressure to perform, from whatsoever source; mal de mer, mal de pays, mal de siecle, mal de code, mal de machine, or any force majeure not pretofore invoked. The program warranty is void in case of nuclear war, whether caused by the program or not. Trademarks -=-=-=-=-= Amiga is a tm of Commodore Business Machines. Archimedes is a tm of Acorn Computers. GIF is a tm of Compuserve Inc. IBM is a tm of International Business Machines Corp. Macintosh is a tm of Apple Computer Inc. MSDOS is a tm of Microsoft Inc. OS/2 is a tm of International Business Machines Corp. PKZIP is a tm of PKWare Inc. Prime and Primos are a tm's of Prime Computer Corp. QNX is a tm of <someone>. Rolemaster is a tm of Iron Crown Enterprises Inc. StuffIt is a tm of Raymond Lau and Aladdin Systems. UNIX is both a tm and a footnote of AT&T. "Good compression isn't a matter of life and death - it's far more important than that"