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LhASFX User's Guide
Evaluation Version 1.0 - 22 November 1991
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Written by Stefan Boberg
Copyright (c) 1991 by Stefan Boberg
V1.0 LhASFX User's Guide Page 1
0 - LhA
LhASFX is part of the LhA family of programs. The same rules
applies to this program as LhA - read the `politics' section of
the manual for more information. When you register yourself as a
user of LhA, you automatically register as a user of LhASFX as
well, and will receive updates at the same time as LhA updates.
1 - Introduction
LhASFX sole purpose in life is to create SFX-archives. A
SFX-archive is a normal LhA archive with a special executable
SFX-header prepended to it, which makes it possible to list, test
and extract files from the archive by means of executing it.
Those of you who have used LHA or ARJ on MSDOS machines probably
know what it is. It was written primarily to provide me with a
good way of distributing my LhA package on BBS'es, FidoNet and
other computer networks. I think it is rather silly to distribute
an archiver in an archive-file, since you then will need another
archiver, which may also be archived and so on.. I've even seen
examples where the archiver was distributed in an archive created
by itself! :)
There are other similar programs for the Amiga, but none as
fast, flexible and efficient as LhASFX. The other programs use
compression methods that have a much smaller compression ratio
than that of LhASFX, and use their own archive file format.
LhASFX uses the standard LhArc/LhA archive format, and LhASFX
archives can easily be converted to standard LhArc/LhA archives
with a simple command ('UnSFX', part of the LhA package), or
manipulated with the LhA archiving program directly.
Another advantage LhASFX has compared to other archivers is
that LhASFX handles archives of any size in only 48K of RAM.
While other programs load the entire archive into memory at once,
LhASFX loads the data when it needs it.
2 - System requirements
The LhASFX program will run on any Amiga system with at least
512KB RAM and one diskdrive.
The SFX-Module only uses about 48K memory when decompressing
or listing archives, regardless of archive size. The
decompression routines of the SFX-module are less optimized than
those of the real archiver LhA, because I consider size as being
more important than speed in this case (it still is fast,
anyway!).
V1.0 LhASFX User's Guide Page 2
3 - How to use it
Using the LhASFX program to create SFX archives is simple, the
command line syntax is as follows:
LhASFX <Archive> [<destfile>]
Where <Archive> is the name of the archive you wish to
convert, with or without the `.lha' or `.lzh' extension. The
optional <destfile> is the name of the file you would like to
hold the SFX archive. If no <destfile> is specified, LhASFX
takes the basename of <Archive> (i.e. strips any extensions) and
appends a `.run' suffix to it to indicate that it is an
executable SFX file. If you specify a <destfile> without the
`.run' extension LhASFX will put one there. DO NOT DISTRIBUTE
LhASFX ARCHIVES WITH ANY OTHER SUFFIX THAN `.RUN' PLEASE!!
4 - Limitations of the SFX module
The SFX module only handles the -lh5- and -lh4- compression
modes, and of course stored files (-lh0-). It does *NOT* handle
the old -lh1- compression mode. If you want to make a
SFX-archive of an archive which uses the -lh1- compression,
simply use the LhA `c' command to convert to `-lh5-' compression,
or repack the normal way (unpack somewhere and then pack it again
with the -2 switch).
The SFX module does NOT handle multiple-volume archives.
This is the evaluation version of LhASFX, and it does not
contain all features that the `real' version registered LhA users
get. The `real' LhASFX contains some more switches, and the SFX
module is smaller.
The registered version also contains an advanced integrity
check algorithm that is VERY difficult to bypass.
V1.0 LhASFX User's Guide Page 3
5 Politics
For disclaimers, licensing information etc., please refer to
the user's manual for the LhA archiver.
Table Of Contents
LhASFX V1.0
0 - LhA ................................................ 1
1 - Introduction ....................................... 1
2 - System requirements ................................. 1
3 - How to use it ......................................... 1
4 - Limitations of the SFX module .......................... 2
5 Politics ............................................ 3
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