Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!burl!codas!killer!dcs!wnp
From: wnp@dcs.UUCP (Wolf N. Paul)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: deARCing binaries (How?)
Summary: ARC format is common in DOS
Message-ID: <33@dcs.UUCP>
Date: 25 Feb 88 13:09:30 GMT
References: <812@pasteur.Berkeley.Edu> <170001@hpcvlx.HP.COM>
Reply-To: wnp@dcs.UUCP (Wolf N. Paul)
Organization: DCS, Dallas, Texas
Lines: 68

In article <170001@hpcvlx.HP.COM> bill@hpcvlx.HP.COM (Bill Frolik) writes:
>/ hpcvlx:comp.binaries.ibm.pc / c60b-ap@buddy.Berkeley.EDU (Ron Mirasol) /  2:13 pm  Feb 17, 1988 /
>
>In article <335@tsc.DEC.COM> pete@tsc.DEC.COM (Pete Schmitt) writes:
>
>> This is an archive (PLANETS.ARC) that must be uudecoded prior
>> to deARCing.
>
>What archive format exactly is this?  I have been unable to "deARC"
>any binaries that I have downloaded from the net.  I tried UNIX "ar"
>but this apparently isn't the format.  I'm sure others have had
>similar problems, so if some kind soul out there could post an answer
>it would be appreciated (as opposed to e-mail).

Files in the MS-DOS world (and increasingly UNIX on personal computers, as well
as other non-MS-DOS PCs) with an extension ".ARC" usually are archives produced
with one of several archivers which are almost compatible with each other.

The original ARC was written by System Enhancment Associates and is being
distributed under the shareware system. The current version is, I think, 5.12.
ARC is a combined archive creator/archive extractor.

A modified version of ARC, which is faster and also adds an additional 
compression algorithm ("squashing") was written by Phil Katz and is called
PKARC. The corresponding archive extraction utility is called PKXARC.

Finally, there is a set of utilities written by Vern Buerg which also manipulate
such archives; ARCA creates and adds to *.ARC archives, and ARCE extracts files
from archives. I do not know what the current version numbers are, but the
latest version of ARCE is able to extract files from PKARC'ed, "squashed"
archives.

One thing that is true of all these programs is that they will print out fairly
complete instructions for their use when invoked without any arguments.

The syntax for unpacking an archive, say FOO.ARC, is as follows:

With ARC:

	A>ARC X FOO

With PKXARC:

	A>PKXARC FOO

With ARCE:

	A>ARCE FOO

All of these utilities can be found on almost all BBS systems, as well as
in the commercial systems like CompuServe, Source, Genie, etc.

I have a disk of archive utilities for MS-DOS, including the programs mentioned
above, as well as tar and shar/unshar for MS-DOS, which I will be glad to
copy for anyone who sends me a blank, formatted disk and a stamped, self-
addressed disk mailer.

Wolf Paul
EES Inc.
6730 LBJ Freeway #2195
Dallas, TX 75240


-- 
Wolf N. Paul                  Phone: (214) 306-9101 (h)   (214) 404-8077 (w)
3387 Sam Rayburn Run          UUCP: ihnp4!killer!{dcs, doulos}!wnp
Carrollton, TX 75007          INTERNET: wnp@dcs.UUCP       ESL:  62832882
Pat Robertson does NOT speak for all evangelical Christians--not for me, anyway!