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From: madler@pooh.caltech.edu (Mark Adler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: file compressor (ZIP for UNIX)
Message-ID: <1991Feb15.190404.13197@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 15 Feb 91 19:04:04 GMT
References: <15FEB91102031@uazhe0.physics.arizona.edu>
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Ralph Zazula tries to reach me ...
>> I tried to send this directly 3 times, once via NEWS and it puked...

The address "madler@pooh.caltech.edu" ought to work from where you are.

>> Do you know where I can get the latest copies of ZIP/UNZIP via FTP?

You can get unzip via anonymous ftp from simtel20.army.mil in the
directory pd1:<misc.unix> as unzip403.tar-z (which you would rename
to unzip403.tar.Z).

Zip is not public yet--still in beta test.  I'll let this group know
when it will be available.  Currently, it is in an advanced stage of
development (version 0.7) which works on a wide range of Unix machines
and does shrink and implode.  However, MSDOS and VMS operation is still
being worked on, and implode is much too slow as it stands, but new
algorithms promise to improve that greatly.  I can't really give an
ETA right now, but if I had to guess, I'd say we ought to have 1.0 by
April.

>> The only feature I think it is lacking is the abliltiy to limit
>> the size of the .ZIP file and create multiple files of that limited
>> size when archiving large quanitities of data

I have already written a program called zipsplit that breaks a zip file
into the smallest number of zip files less than a specified size.  This
is a little more versatile than what you suggest, but has the limitation
that you need enough space to store the big zip file to be split (the
resulting zip files can be put on another device, like floppies).

Mark Adler
madler@pooh.caltech.edu