Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mailrus!nrl-cmf!cmcl2!rutgers!bellcore!wind!tr
From: tr@wind.bellcore.com (tom reingold)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Standard format for ARCed files
Message-ID: <6127@bellcore.bellcore.com>
Date: 14 Mar 88 15:49:00 GMT
References: <5439@swan.ulowell.edu> <551@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>
Sender: news@bellcore.bellcore.com
Reply-To: tr@wind.UUCP (tom reingold)
Followup-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Distribution: na
Organization: Bellcore, Morristown, Noo Joizy
Lines: 46
Summary: It's easy to convert a self-extracting program back into an archive!

In article <551@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> dave@sun.soe.clarkson.edu.UUCP writes:
$ From article <5439@swan.ulowell.edu>, by boneill@hawk.ulowell.edu (SoftXc Coordinator):
$ > I propose a standard format for ARCed files uploaded to comp.binaries.ibm.pc
$ > could be as follows:
$ > 
$ > 	1) The moderator would ARC the files using PKARC 3.5
$ > 	2) The moderator would use the MAKESFX program to create a
$ >            self-extracting archive.
$ > 
$ > This would eliminate the need for anyone to have a specific archive
$ > extractor, hopefully simplifying any problems.
$ 
$ Not really; I like to check things out on our Unix system; if you don't
$ have a direct Ethernet line to your netnews host, isn't it easier to look
$ at the files on the host rather than spending hours downloading 'em? :-)
$ 
$ Suggestion: Use PKARC with the /oct option to create ARC-compatible
$ archives.  Do not use MAKESFX.  Some arc programs will read self-extracting
$ archives, but some die on them.
$ 

While I think it does not make things peachy since most people do
have ARC or PKARC, I think using MAKESFX is a good idea because it
can save trouble for those who don't have an un-archiving program.
And it does not make the archive unreadable on Unix.  You just have
to chop the program off the top of the archive.  This is done very
easily with tail.  The program is always 9758 bytes long.

	$ tail +9759c foo.exe > foo.arc

Note the 'c' at the end of the first argument.  It means "start
writing at the 9,759th byte".

I may be off by one character -- this is known as a fencepost error
-- but I am 80% sure this is right because tail starts counting at
1 instead of 0.  This is because people usually perceive the
beginning line of a text file to be line one, not line zero.

Would you please stop posting discussions to the binaries group.
It seems that those who do, do so because they think that THEIR
postings are important enough to warrant posting it out of place.

Tom Reingold                    INTERNET:       tr@bellcore.bellcore.com
Bell Communications Research    UUCP:           rutgers!bellcore!tr
435 South St room 2L350         SOUNDNET:       (201) 829-4622 [work]
Morristown, NJ 07960                            (201) 287-2345 [home]