Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att-cb!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ames!umd5!purdue!i.cc.purdue.edu!j.cc.purdue.edu!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!clio!berger
From: berger@clio.las.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: How do these things work
Message-ID: <34800002@clio>
Date: 15 Apr 88 22:01:00 GMT
References: <70600002@uxf.cso.uiuc.edu>
Lines: 30
Nf-ID: #R:uxf.cso.uiuc.edu:70600002:clio:34800002:000:1264
Nf-From: clio.las.uiuc.edu!berger    Apr 15 16:01:00 1988


That depends on the format of the ASCII files you have.  arc and pxarc
expect file archives in a specific format.  When things are posted to
the net, they may be arc files, but are often encoded in yet another
format.  Shell archives (shar files, not to be confused with Sea type
arc files) are decoded using /bin/sh on the shar file, after stripping
off any mail, notes, or news headers.  uuencoded files may be decoded
with uudecode, which should be on your local machine.

Once you've decoded the file from shar or uuencode format (if
necessary), if you then end up with an arc file, you can transfer
it to your local microcomputer (in binary mode.  If you use Kermit,
don't forget to set file type binary on the host end) and then use
arc or pkxarc.  If there's an executable binary in the archive
file, it will be extracted at that point.

To summarize:
First determine the format of the text file.  If necessary, strip off
mail, notes, or news headers, and run it through uudecode or /bin/sh.
Then transfer the file in binary mode to your local machine, and de-
arc it.


			Mike Berger
			Department of Statistics 
			Science, Technology, and Society
			University of Illinois 

			berger@clio.las.uiuc.edu
			{ihnp4 | convex | pur-ee}!uiucuxc!clio!berger