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From: dalegass@dalcsug.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: ARChiving of binary postings
Message-ID: <138@dalcsug.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 15-Sep-87 07:57:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: dalcsug.138
Posted: Tue Sep 15 07:57:14 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 16-Sep-87 05:59:28 EDT
Organization: Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S., Canada
Lines: 19
Keywords: arc,compress

I have recently been informed that posting ARChived binaries and sources
actually takes more transmission time in the net than if the un-compressed
files were posted.  This is supposedly due to the fact that unix 'compress'es
these postings before they go out, and an .ARC file actually *grows* when
compressed.

I find it hard to believe that the unix file transfers don't check for the
'compress' error code 2 (resulting file is larger than original).

Could anybody clarify this issue?  I'm not interested in statistics of
compress and ARC, because I *do* realize that compressing an ARC file will
make it grow--I'm not disputing that...

If this turns out to be true, it certainly would make more sense for everyone
to post 'shar'ed archives, which are not compressed at all.  Hopefully,
unix is smart enough not to use a enlarged-compression when sending, since
the .ARC files get a better overall compression than 'compress'ed files...

-dalegass@dalcsug.uucp