Path: utzoo!attcan!lsuc!ncrcan!ontenv!soley
From: soley@ontenv.UUCP (Norman S. Soley)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: SHAR files
Message-ID: <430@ontenv.UUCP>
Date: 24 Feb 89 01:18:37 GMT
References: <5827@bsu-cs.UUCP> <1131@marlin.NOSC.MIL>
Organization: Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Toronto
Lines: 34

In article <1131@marlin.NOSC.MIL>, jbjones@marlin.NOSC.MIL (John B. Jones) writes:
> 
> In conversation from time to time, I've seen the expression "SHAR file",
> and also phrases like "I unshared it" and "most of the archive consisted
> of shar files".
> Pray tell, what is a SHAR file?

Shar stands for SHell ARchive, what it refers to is a program that 
combines multiple ascii files in to a single ascii file with the
necessary control information to extract them again. The neat thing
about them is that no special program is needed to do the unpacking,
the file itself is a UNIX shell script and you just run it. 

> How do you find one?

Look in comp.sources.misc or comp.sources.unix, virtually everything
there is a shar file.

> How do you unshar one?

On a UNIX system you first edit the file and take off the header
information, then you type 'sh sharfile' and away it goes. This is 
potentially dangerous from a security point of view so
programs have been written to unshar files in a more secure manner,
DOS of course doesn't have the bourne shell (unless you have the MKS
toolkit or something like it) so you have to use one of these programs
to process shar files on a PC.


-- 
Norman Soley - Data Communications Analyst - Ontario Ministry of the Environment
UUCP:	uunet!mnetor!ontmoh!ontenv!soley	| Contents of this message are
OR:     soley@ontenv.UUCP 			| my ideas, not the Ministry's
   "Stay smart, go cool, be happy, it's the only way to get what you want"