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From: grr@cbmvax.cbm.UUCP (George Robbins)
Newsgroups: net.news,net.wanted.sources
Subject: Re: Shar format found dangerous
Message-ID: <106@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 16-Apr-86 22:30:30 EST
Article-I.D.: cbmvax.106
Posted: Wed Apr 16 22:30:30 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 18-Apr-86 08:34:45 EST
References: <214@randvax.UUCP> <1133@turtlevax.UUCP>
Reply-To: grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins)
Distribution: net
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 29
Keywords: shar
Xref: watmath net.news:4757 net.wanted.sources:2174
Summary: please don't

In article <1133@turtlevax.UUCP> you write:
>In article <214@randvax.UUCP> guyton@randvax.UUCP (Jim Guyton) writes:

>>We've got shar, tar, cpio, and ar.  None of which is very good for this
>>kind of thing.
>
>I thought that ar (the portable, readable archive, as used in BSD and
>posted on the net a while ago) was supposed to be perfect for this
>kind of stuff.  It never really caught on, though.  Anyone know why?
>I think is might be that shar generators are easy to hack together
>and personalize.
>
>Ken Turkowski @CIMLINC, Menlo Park, CA {amd,decwrl,hplabs,seismo}!turtlevax!ken

Shar is attractive because it doesn't require an unshar program!  Just about
everyone on the net has /bin/sh and the utilities frequently invoked by shar
files.

I believe that there is a 'safe' unshar program or script floating around the
net somewhere - either in the news distribution or in mod.sources.

My solution is to call the shar file up with vi, give it a quick scan, and
then use the ex command :.,$w !sh  to pipe the shar into the shell.  Doesn't
work too well on systems w/o vi though...

-- 
George Robbins - now working with,	uucp: {ihnp4|seismo|caip}!cbmvax!grr
but no way officially representing	arpa: cbmvax!grr@seismo.css.GOV
Commodore, Engineering Department	fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)