Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!dali.cs.montana.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!sdd.hp.com!think.com!samsung!uunet!lll-winken!iggy.GW.Vitalink.COM!widener!netnews.upenn.edu!vax1.cc.lehigh.edu!cert.sei.cmu.edu!krvw
From: padgett%tccslr.dnet@mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson)
Newsgroups: comp.virus
Subject: re: What's so bad about self-extracting archives?
Message-ID: <0003.9105071330.AA00939@ubu.cert.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 6 May 91 19:08:43 GMT
Sender: Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
Lines: 21
Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu

>From:    Murray_RJ@cc.curtin.edu.au

>The other objection I have with self-extracting
>archives is that you're stuck with extracting the whole lot, even if
>you only want to find out what the !@#$%^&*() thing does.

      This is not a generic case. I mostly use Phil Katz' excellent
      PKZIP (plug) and while it can create self-extracting files using
      an included utility, there is nothing that requires you to use
      the self-extracting feature. The file can still be viewed and
      selectively extracted using PKUNZIP just like a regular .ZIP
      file. The only difference is that you must completely specify the
      file as PKZIP defaults to the .ZIP extension.

      (e.g. PKUNZIP [-v|-n|etc] SELFEXTR.EXE)

      The biggest difference is that the .EXE is about 10k longer than
      the bare .ZIP but is handy when the DE doesn't have PKUNZIP.

					Warmly,
                                               Padgett