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- ARCView User's Guide
-
- Copyright (C) 1990-94, Sergey Nazarenko, Author
-
-
-
-
- ARCView is a program for those who work with archive systems to
- economize disk space. You may work from the command line. The
- syntax is simply
- ARCView <file name>
-
- or you may use ARCView under Norton Commander (TM) versions 2.0,
- 3.0 and 4.0 by pressing the <F3> key on a file name.
-
-
-
- Contents
-
- 1. The Main Features of ARCView
-
- 2. ARCView Installation
-
- 3. ARCView Control Keys
-
- 3.1 Cursor Control Keys
- 3.2 Selection and Cancel
- 3.3 Editing Keys
-
- 4. Setting Up the File ARCVIEW.EXT
-
- 5. Acknowledgments
-
-
-
-
-
- 1. The Main Features of ARCView
-
- ARCView:
-
- - allows you to view a content (list of files) of archived files
- with the extensions .ARC, .PAK, .ZIP, .LZH, .ICE, .CHZ, .ARJ,
- .LIM, .HA and .EXE., doing this without having to use the
- original archive program, and faster than the original archiver
- could view it.
-
- - allows you to view a list of files which form .SFX
- (selfextracting) archives; this is an unattainable feature for
- the archiver itself. ARCView recognizes over 40 different .SFX
- formats.
-
- - allows you to unpack, view contents, test, and delete files
- from archives.
-
- - allows you to work with embedded directories (subdirectories)
- in archives.
-
- - automatically determines the type of archive. If ARCView
- determines it is not an archived file, it will activate the
- viewer for that type of file according to the file extension
- name. The viewer for these files is found in the file
- ARCVIEW.EXT.
-
- - automatically identifies files in an archive which have been
- packed using a password and marks them with the symbol "*", then
- requests to enter the password.
-
- - allows you to view commentaries in archives.
-
- - supports EGA command lines (using <Alt-F9> under NC) and other
- non-standard modes (e.g. 60 lines on the screen).
-
- - recognizes multi-volume .ARJ - archives.
-
- - offers additional convenient features.
-
-
-
- The table below lists the names of the executable archive files,
- which ARCView uses for unpacking, viewing contents, file testing
- and deletion in an archive. The search for the archive systems
- occurs in the current directory and then follows the PATH setting
- given in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
-
- ╔═════╤═════════════════════╤═══════════╗
- ║ EXT │ Unpack/View │ Deletion ║
- ╟═════╪═════════════════════╪═══════════╣
- ║ ARC │ PKXARC.COM │ PKARC.COM ║
- ╟─────┼─────────────────────┼───────────╢
- ║ PAK │ PAK.EXE │ PAK.EXE ║
- ╟─────┼─────────────────────┼───────────╢
- ║ ZIP │ PKUNZIP.EXE │ PKZIP.EXE ║
- ╟─────┼─────────────────────┼───────────╢
- ║ ICE │ LHA.EXE │ LHA.EXE ║
- ╟─────┼─────────────────────┼───────────╢
- ║ LZH │ LHA.EXE │ LHA.EXE ║
- ╟─────┼─────────────────────┼───────────╢
- ║ ARJ │ ARJ.EXE │ ARJ.EXE ║
- ╟─────┼─────────────────────┼───────────╢
- ║ CHZ │ CHARC.EXE │ CHARC.EXE ║
- ╟─────┼─────────────────────┼───────────╢
- ║ ZOO │ ZOO.EXE │ ZOO.EXE ║
- ╟─────┼─────────────────────┼───────────╢
- ║ LIM │ LIMIT.EXE │ LIMIT.EXE ║
- ╟─────┼─────────────────────┼───────────╢
- ║ HA │ HA.EXE │ HA.EXE ║
- ╚═════╧═════════════════════╧═══════════╝
-
-
-
- 2. ARCView Installation
-
- Installing ARCView is very simple. Run the program ARCINST.EXE.
- Answer the questions the program asks you. ARCView will automa-
- tically find the Norton Commander and make a backup copy of it
- under the name NCMAIN.OLD. That way the old configuration is
- saved if you wish to return to it by renaming the file again.
-
- Warning:
-
- You should not try to pack NC with programs of the type LZEXE,
- DIET, PKLITE, EXEPack and similar programs. For example, NC 4.0
- is distributed packed by the program DIET 1.2. (* This is the
- way NC is delivered in Russia, it may not be packed when you
- purchase it in Western countries). Before installing you must
- first unpack it with the command
-
- DIET -RA NCMAIN.EXE
-
- After the correct version, size, and other internal characteri-
- stics of the Norton Commander have been verified by ARCView, you
- will be asked to select one of two methods to install ARCView.
-
- The first method: ARCView replaces the viewer for Lotus1-2-3 (TM)
- in the program NCMAIN.EXE with ARCView. After that when you
- press <F3> while the cursor is placed on one of the files with
- one of the above listed extensions, you will be able to view the
- contents of the archived file. Keep in mind that ARCView can
- only write six extensions under NC and ARCView cannot call .CHZ
- and .EXE files, which is connected with the peculiarities of NC.
-
- The second method: ARCView is used as a dispatcher of various
- viewers contained in the module ARCVIEW.EXT analogous to the NC
- file NC.EXT. When ARCView is loaded it automatically loads the
- ARCVIEW.EXT file into memory. When ARCView is asked to view an
- archived file by pressing <F3> with the cursor on the desired
- file to be viewed, it looks for the necessary file extension to
- load the correct viewer. This second method has one drawback.
- It takes more memory. If you pressed <F3> while the cursor was
- on the the archived file TEST.CHI, the memory map when running
- ARCView might look something like this:
-
- NC.EXE ( main kernel of NC )
- NCMAIN.EXE ( NC not released from memory )
- ARCVIEW.EXE ( the program ARCView itself )
- CHIVIEW.EXE ( the viewer for CHI-files )
-
- However, usually even only using a PC-AT (TM) with 80286 processor
- with 1 MB of RAM under MS-DOS 5.0 (TM) taking advantage of High
- Memory, all the viewers will be well placed and leave memory in
- reserve. The amount of free memory is displayed in the right top
- corner of the screen, for example: "═══356K═══". If the capaci-
- ty is less than 120-100 KB, you should release memory, otherwise
- you will not be able to run other programs from ARCView.
-
-
-
-
- 3. ARCView Control Keys
-
- 3.1 <Left>
- <Right> Horizontal scrolling of the full file name
- <Up> Cursor movement one line up
- <Down> Cursor movement one line down
- <Home> Cursor movement to the beginning of the file list
- <End> Cursor movement to the end of the file list
- <PgUp> Cursor movement one full screen up
- <PgDn> Cursor movement one full screen down
- <Ctrl-PgUp> Cursor movement to the beginning of the file list
- <Ctrl-PgDn> Cursor movement to the end of the file list
-
- 3.2 Selection and Cancel
-
- <Ins> Select/Cancel selection of the current file
- <Gray-Plus> Selection of files by template
- <Gray-Minus> Cancel selection of files by template
-
- 3.3 Editing keys
-
- <Left arrow>,
- <Right arrow> Cursor movement one position left or right
- <Ctrl-Left>,
- <Ctrl-Right> Cursor movement a word left or right
- <Home> Cursor movement to beginning of line
- <End> Cursor movement to end of line
- <Ctrl-Home> Delete part of line from cursor position to
- the beginning of line
- <Ctrl-End> Delete part of line from cursor position to the
- end of the line
-
- <Esc>,
- <F10>,
- <Enter> End the session
- <Ctrl-Y> Delete a line
- <Ctrl-R> Recover (Undelete) a line
- <Ctrl-P> Toggle password mode (make password visible)
- <BackSpace> Delete one character before the cursor
- <Del> Delete one character under the cursor
- <Ins> Toggle insert/replace (overwrite) mode
-
- 3.4 Function keys
-
- <F1> Help
- <Sh-F1> Information on the archive and the computer.
- <F2> Selection of file list sorting by name, exten-
- sion, date, time of creation, and size.
- <Sh-F2> List of commentaries to the archives (if one
- exists).
- <F3> View of file contents. ARCView unpacks the file
- in the current directory and calls the
- correct viewer as determined by the file
- ARCVIEW.EXE. Pressing <Esc> will delete the
- unpacked file on disk. You may choose to
- unpack the file on a RAM disk by using the
- command SET ARCVIEW = F:\ (if you have
- defined F:\ as your RAM disk). While the
- file is being unpacked ARCView checks to see
- if a file with the same name is present
- elsewhere.
- <Alt-F3> The view of the file using an alternative viewer.
- <F4> Unpacks a file in the archive.
- <Sh-F4> Unpacks the file to the directory specified in
- the pop-up window. If the view of the full file
- name is switched off, (Function key <F6>), the
- unpacking of the file will be executed without
- creating a directory.
- <F5> Edit a file in the archive.
- <F6> Hide/Display (Unhide) the full PATH to the file.
- <F7> File search according to attributes including
- search by file name, extension, size etc.
- <Sh-F7> Repeat the last search.
- <Alt-F7> Hide/Show archivers output.
- <F8> Delete the current file or group of selected
- files from the archive.
- Warning: Be careful about deleting files. Unde-
- leting deleted files is absolutely impossible.
- <F9> Test of the current (or tagged) file(s). If you
- see the message "CRC OK", it means the test was
- successful.
- <Sh-F9> Record of the current configuration is written
- into the file ARCVIEW.INI.
- <Alt-F9> Sets the ARJ Security Envelope to ARJ-archive.
- It is a non-documented feature of ARJ that the
- modification of archive files including additi-
- ons, deletions, and the editing of commenta-
- ries is not allowed. It is only possible to
- extract files from the archive.
- <F10> Exit from program.
- <Sh-F10> ARCView configuration. The following window
- appears on the screen:
-
- ╔═════════════════════ Setup ═════════════════════╗
- ║ Packer : PKZIP.EXE ║
- ║ Unpacker : PKUNZIP.EXE ║
- ║ View comline : -O ║
- ║ Unpack comline : -D -O ║
- ║ Delete comline : -D ║
- ║ Test comline : -T ║
- ║ Add comline : -mex ║
- ║ Alt Viewer : wpview.exe ║
- ║ Editor : edit.com ║
- ║ Temp path : E:\ ║
- ║ Ok ║
- ╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
-
- Packer - a program to delete files from an archive
- Unpacker - a program to unpack files
- Alt viewer - the alternate viewer loaded by pressing <Alt-F3>
- Temp path - the PATH which the unpacking files will follow
- when <F3> and <Alt-F3> are pressed.
- If you forget to set the environment variable,
- then ARCView will search for the variable TEMP,
- but if it does not find it, then it uses the
- value from the initialization file ARCVIEW.INI.
- View comline - defines which parameters to use for extracting
- one file from an archive without path by pressing <F3>
- Unpack comline - defines which parameters to use for extracting a
- file or files from an archive, this is used for
- the extract function by pressing <F4> or <Shift-f4>.
- Delete comline - defines which parameters to use for deleting a
- file or files from an archive, this is used for
- the delete function by pressing <F8>;
- Test comline - defines which parameters to use for testing a file
- or files from an archive, this is used for the test
- function by pressing <F9>.
- Add comline - defines which parameters to use for adding a file to
- an archive, this is used for the Edit function <F5>.
- Editor - the editor loaded by pressing <F4>.
-
-
-
- 4. The Setup file ARCVIEW.EXT
-
- While viewing the contents of a file in an archive <F3>, ARC-
- View uses the extension file ARCVIEW.EXT. This file may con-
- tain up to 40 lines: and its structure is completely analogous
- to the file structure of NC.EXT.
-
- The format of the ARCVIEW.EXT file:
- !.! File name with extension
- txt: edit !\!.! !: Disk drive letter followed by a colon
- ^^^ └───┬────┘ !\ Path name
- │ └── DOS command !! !
- └── File extension ! File name without extension
-
- The main difference between the file ARCVIEW.EXT and NC.EXT consists
- in the fact that the latter must have either ! or !.! after DOS
- commands and ARCView doesn't need this. If ARCView does not see the
- line !.! or a similar line, it generates a command line completely
- compatible to the one which NCMAIN passes on to its viewers. Besides
- the file name the command line consists of about 15 parameters.
-
- Here is an example of the way ARCVIEW.EXT might look:
-
- arj: arcview.exe
- au?: arcview.exe
- al?: arcview.exe
- lzh: arcview.exe
- ice: arcview.exe
- zip: arcview.exe
- arc: arcview.exe
- msg: msgview.exe !\!.!
- chz: arcview.exe
- exe: hiew.exe !\!.!
- com: hiew.exe !\!.!
- ovl: hiew.exe !\!.!
- chi: chiview.exe !\!.!
- pcx: pcxview.exe
- fli: aaplay.exe !\!.!
- db: paraview.exe
- 123: 123view.exe
- dbf: dbview.exe
- gif: command.com /c av.bat
- ???: wpview.exe
-
-
- 5. Acknowledgments
-
- The author expresses special thanks to his colleagues:
- - Vladimir Serkov (VVS Computers)
- - Yuri Kuznetsov (OutRager)
- - Nikolai Baranov (SysOp ICC Data Bank BBS)
- - Jevgenij Krivosheev (SysOp S Half-Private BBS)
- - Nikolai Shamarin (textual concept)
- Specially thanks :
- [\/]an|-|anter (Mentally damaged member from UGI) for medical
- support & information about "Åü#1 ¿¼Ñ¡¿ Å.ê.è";
- ~T~he )\(ight ]3reaker for some bug info and testing under OS/2 2.0
- Steel R/┤t for new warez and HA testing.
-
- Copyrights
- Norton Commander is a trademark of Symantek Inc.
- Lotus1-2-3 is a trademark of Lotus Development Corp.
- IBM PC-AT is a trademark of International Business Machines, Corp.
- MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft Corp.
-