Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!bionet!agate!ucbvax!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!att!mcdchg!ddsw1!corpane!sparks
From: sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: SHAR format for binary files
Summary: You mean for uuencoded binary files (ascii-cized :-)
Keywords: only a TINY annoyance, use 'sed'
Message-ID: <614@corpane.UUCP>
Date: 10 May 89 12:11:04 GMT
References: <6960@ecsvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks)
Organization: Corpane Industries, Inc.
Lines: 60

In article <6960@ecsvax.UUCP> kms@ecsvax.UUCP (Ken Steele) writes:
>
>I also experienced initial frustration when dealing with the
>X's in the binary shar files.  But this was more a problem of a
>novice AND that my Ultrix machine lacks an 'unshar.'

There is no 'unshar' program on unix (or ultrix). The entire file is just
a shell script (read batch file in MSDOS language). You just execute it by:

$ sh script.name
[or:]
$ . script.name

This causes the shell to process it as tho you had typed the file from the 
keyboard. Kinda like running a file thru 'execute' on the Amiga.

>
>But the task turns out to not be that difficult.  Just delete all
>lines that do not begin with an X and then do:
>    sed 's/^X//' <saved.filename >filename.zu?.whatever

Basically you are just playing the part of the shell script processor here.
Better to just do like I suggested above.

Also, when you get finished with unsharing the shar file, if it was from 
comp.binaries.amiga you will be left with a uuencoded file. uuencode is a
program that converts binary files into ascii so you can send it thru usenet.
You need to convert it back to binary by using uudecode. And most of these
encoded files are zoo files also. so after uudecoding, you need to unzoo it.

If it was from comp.sources.amiga it will be ok after just unsharing (it was
text to begin with). 

Here is an example of how I would download a binary file 
(my comments are in []).

[lets say I grabbed a program called 'wanderer' and saved it as a file called
wanderer.shar]

     [on unix:]

     $ sh wanderer.shar  [unsharing. now I have a file called wanderer.zuu]
     $ uudecode wanderer.zuu  [uudecoding. now have file called wanderer.zoo]
     [download to my amiga]
     CLI> zoo x wanderer.zoo

That's it. sounds complex but it's not. Bob is using the easiest method and
the most consistent one that I can think of. Zoo keeps the files small,
uuencode makes it ascii so you can send it thru usenet, and shar packs multiple
text files together and keeps mailers from screwing around with the source
files and uuencoded zoo files. 

uuencode and uudecode are available for the Amiga, but it would be nice to
have a program that unshared a .shar file on the Amiga side. Then you could
do everything on the Amiga. Is there such a beastie?

-- 
John Sparks   |  {rutgers|uunet}!ukma!corpane!sparks | D.I.S.K. 24hrs 1200bps
[not for RHF] |          sparks@corpane.UUCP         | 502/968-5401 thru -5406 
If you've seen one nuclear war, you've seen them all.