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From: thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: FTP file names .z
Message-ID: <36745@cup.portal.com>
Date: 10 Dec 90 02:14:19 GMT
References: <5436.2760cc11@zeus.unomaha.edu>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 30

bacon@zeus.unomaha.edu in <5436.2760cc11@zeus.unomaha.edu> writes:
 
	It seems that when you get down to the dir and file level on some
	systems the name of the prog that I want to get is labeled something
	like "Part01.z".  I have assumed that the .z suffix meant that the
	file had been archived in some form, and my guess was the the .z stood
	for zoo.

and za011@zeus.unomaha.edu in <5458.2761597f@zeus.unomaha.edu> writes:

	I started replying to your message, then I noticed that I know you,
	Russ.  Z stands for Compress, and it is a UNIX compression method.
	Since you are using a VMS machine (yea!), you can't undo it, at least
	not on the VAX here.  I will place an Amiga Compress program in your
	account pronto.  Beware, though, Compress eats memory like cops eat
	junk food, so you will not be able to undo very large files.  If you
	have any large ones, I'll undo them for you.

Hmmm, careful there!  Note that "bacon" clearly said "Part01.z", where the
"z" is lower-case.  Compress' wont is for upper-case "Z".  The only program
set of which I'm aware that uses lower-case "z" is {pack, unpack, pcat} from
very early AT&T systems; those are congruent to but not compatible with the
set {compress, uncompress, zcat}.

And, unless you personally know "bacon"'s Amiga system config, don't presume
he couldn't uncompress/unpack large files; one can readily uncompress, for
example, the 4.5MB GNU EMACS tar file (to be 12.3MB) with only 1.5MB RAM and
a HD on an Amiga.

Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com (OR) ..!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!thad ]