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ARC
File Archive Utility
Version 5.20
(C)COPYRIGHT 1985,86
by
System Enhancement Associates, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
This document describes version 5.20 of the ARC file
utility, which was created by System Enhancement
Associates, Inc. in October of 1986.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Section Page
Introduction .................................... 1
Using ARC ....................................... 3
ARC commands .................................... 5
Adding files ................................ 5
Extracting files ............................ 7
Deleting files .............................. 8
Listing archive entries ..................... 8
Running files ............................... 10
Printing files .............................. 11
Testing an archive .......................... 11
Converting an archive ....................... 12
ARC options ..................................... 13
Suppressing compression ..................... 13
Backup retention ............................ 14
Message suppression ......................... 15
Encryption/Decryption ....................... 17
RAMdisk support ................................. 18
MARC ............................................ 19
ARCE ............................................ 20
Version numbers ................................. 21
Common questions and answers .................... 22
Maintenance contracts ........................... 24
Revision history ................................ 25
Changes in version 3 ........................ 25
Changes in version 4 ........................ 25
Changes in version 4.1 ...................... 26
Changes in version 4.3 ...................... 26
Changes in version 4.4 ...................... 27
Changes in version 4.5 ...................... 27
Changes in version 5.0 ...................... 28
Changes in version 5.1 ...................... 29
Changes in version 5.2 ...................... 30
Program history and credits ..................... 31
Bulletin boards ................................. 33
Site licenses ................................... 34
INTRODUCTION
ARC is the copyrighted property of System Enhancement
Associates, Inc. You are granted a limited license to
use ARC, and to copy it and distribute it, provided
that the following conditions are met:
1) No fee may be charged for such copying and
distribution.
2) ARC may ONLY be distributed in its original,
unmodified state.
3) ARC may *not* be distributed, in whole or in part, as
part of any commercial product or service without
the express written permission of System
Enhancement Associates.
Contributions for the use of this program will be
appreciated, and should be sent to:
System Enhancement Associates, Inc.
21 New Street, Wayne NJ 07470
You may not use this product in a commercial
environment or a governmental organization without
paying a license fee of $35. Site licenses and
commercial distribution licenses are available. A
program disk and printed documentation are available
for $50. See the order form enclosed with this manual
for more details.
ARC is user supported software. This means that you
may copy it freely and give the copies away to anyone
you wish, at no cost. They are in turn requested to
send in a contribution if they decide to use it.
The user supported software concept (often referred to
as "shareware") is an attempt to provide software at low
cost. The cost of offering a new product by
conventional means is staggering, and hence dissuades
many independent authors and small companies from
developing and promoting their ideas. User supported
software is an attempt to develop a new marketing
channel, where products can be introduced at low cost.
ARC Page 1
If user supported software works, then everyone will
benefit. The user will benefit by receiving quality
products at low cost, and by being able to "test
drive" software thoroughly before purchasing it. The
author benefits by being able to enter the commercial
software arena without first needing large sources of
venture capital.
But it can only work with your support. We're not
just talking about ARC here, but about all user
supported software. If you obtain a user supported
program from a friend or colleague, and are still
using it after a couple of weeks, then it is obviously
worth something to you, and a contribution should be
sent.
And now, back to ARC:
ARC is used to create and maintain file archives. An
archive is a group of files collected together into
one file in such a way that the individual files may
be recovered intact.
ARC is different from other archive and library
utilities in that it automatically compresses the
files being archived, so that the resulting archive
takes up a minimum amount of space.
When ARC is used to add a file to an archive it
analyzes the file to determine which of three storage
methods will result in the greatest savings. These
three methods are:
1) No compression; the file is stored as is.
2) Repeated-character compression; repeated sequences
of the same byte value are collapsed into a three-
byte code sequence.
3) Dynamic Lempel-Zev compression; the file is stored
as a series of variable size bit codes which
represent character strings, and which are created
"on the fly".
Note that since one of the three methods involves no
compression at all, the resulting archive entry will
never be larger than the original file.
ARC Page 2
USING ARC
ARC is invoked with a command of the following format:
ARC <x> <arcname> [<template> . . .]
Where:
<x> is an ARC command letter (see below), in
either upper or lower case.
<arcname> is the name of the archive to act on,
with or without an extension. If no extension is
supplied, then ".ARC" is assumed. The archive
name may include path and drive specifiers.
<template> is one or more file name templates.
The "wildcard" characters "*" and "?" may be used.
A file name template may include a path or drive
specifier, though it isn't always meaningful.
If ARC is invoked with no arguments (by typing "ARC",
and pressing "enter"), then a brief command summary is
displayed.
Following is a brief summary of the available ARC
commands:
a = add files to archive
m = move files to archive
u = update files in archive
f = freshen files in archive
d = delete files from archive
x,e = extract files from archive
r = run files from archive
p = copy files from archive to standard output
l = list files in archive
v = verbose listing of files in archive
t = test archive integrity
c = convert entry to new packing method
ARC Page 3
Following is a brief summary of the available ARC
options, which may alter how a command works:
b = retain backup copy of archive
s = suppress compression (store only)
w = suppress warning messages
n = suppress notes and comments
o = overwrite existing files when extracting
g = encode or decode archive entry
ARC Page 4
ARC COMMANDS
This section describes each of the commands. ARC will
accept any one command at a time. If no commands are
given, then a brief command list is displayed.
ADDING FILES
Files are added to an archive using the "A" (Add), "M"
(Move), "U" (Update), or "F" (Freshen) commands. Add
always adds the file. Move differs from Add in that
the source file is deleted once it has been added to
the archive.
Update differ