Sure, I can help you. But when something 'doesnt works' there are hundreds of things
which can be wrong. Please, give me enough information, so I could figure how to help
you.
You should tell me:
- The version of MacGzip you are using (you can know this by getting info from MacGzip in the Finder)
- The model of Macintosh you are using and what version of the operating system ('About this mac...' in apple Menu)
- What you are trying to do with MacGzip and how you do it
- What are the results you get (error messages, crashes, incorrect files...)
• I don't like the interface / I'd like batch processing
The interface in 1.0 version has changed; anyway, the easiest (and faster) way to use MacGzip is using the Drag&Drop mode.
Read the Finder Help Balloon of MacGzip to find out about modifier keys.
About Batch processing, remember; although File menus are disabled while MacGzip is working, you still can drop files on it.
• What should I put in the 'gzip suffix' preference?
My advice is to not check the 'Use custom suffix' option.
Anyway; if you want to expand frequently one member .zip files or VMS .gz;1 files, you should check also the 'only when decompressing' box.
If your UNIX host has an older gzip (which creates compressed files with .z) you should put '.z' in this field of macgzip preferences; but the best option would be to update your UNIX gzip to the last version (currently -9/10/95- is 1.2.4).
• What is the meaning of 'ASCII' compression/decompression?
-a --ascii
Ascii text mode: convert end-of-lines using local con-
ventions. This option is supported only on some non-
Unix systems.
let's have the ASCII file 'pc.txt' on an DOS machine
we can make:
gzip -c pc.txt > pc.gz
gzip -ca pc.txt > pca.gz
then, we put these files in our mac and:
gzip 'uncompress' 'binary' of pc.gz gives us a file with EOL=<CR><LF> (bad)
gzip 'uncompress' 'binary' of pca.gz gives us a file with EOL=<LF> (bad)
gzip 'uncompress' 'ascii' of pc.gz gives us a file with EOL=<CR><CR> (bad)
gzip 'uncompress' 'ascii' of pca.gz gives us a file with EOL=<CR> (good!)
• My Mac-dhqx-application does not recognize gunziped files.
A file with .hqx suffix IS A TEXT FILE; so it should be uncompressed in ASCII mode. This not only will put 'Macintosh end-of-lines' (which shouldn't make any difference to your debinhexer), but also will set the type of the resulting file to 'TEXT'.
Anyway; if you have gunziped your foo.hqx in binary mode; you can use 'StuffIt Expander', since (in Drag&Drop mode) it eats any kind of file.
• What is the meaning of 'binary' in the mode pop-up menu?
Binary means that you get a file which is exactly the same file (byte by byte) which was compressed; you should use this option for any non-text file (If you want to keep the resources and all the Macintosh information, you should use MacBinary; Internet Config can select the mode automatically for you)
If you don't know anything about Mac info and resources, please, read the 'File Formats' document.
If you uncompress a binary file (like a file.tar.gz or a file.tif.gz) in ASCII mode; you will loose the file.
If you uncompress a text file (like a file.hqx.gz or a text.gz) in binary mode; you can recover the file in several ways.
• MacGzip reports a CRC error!
This error appears when the file is corrupted or, most frequently, when the file has been incorrectly transferred
Gziped files ARE PURE BINARIES. (raw data, binary, not MacBinary nor ASCII)
When you download a gif file; you set your communications software in binary mode; do the same with gziped files.
If you don't know how to do this, please, read 'Configuring Network Software'
• Can I use MacGzip to unzip .zip files with more than one file zipped
in it?
No, you can't
This is from 'gzip.doc' in 'GNU docs' folder:
Files created by zip can be uncompressed by gzip only if
they have a single member compressed with the 'deflation'
method. This feature is only intended to help conversion of
tar.zip files to the tar.gz format. To extract zip files
with several members, use unzip instead of gunzip.
On a Mac, you can use Zip It 1.11
• Can I use MacGzip to create Unix compress .Z files?
No, you can't
And if you put a .Z in 'custom suffix' preference all you'll have is gzip files with .Z suffix (which compress won't be able to expand...)
• What is Internet Config?
From "Internet Config 1.0 Press Release":
Internet Config: Solving Preference Proliferation
-------------------------------------------------
We all use many different programs to access the Internet and each of these
programs has its own preference dialog, wherein you set things like your
Email address, your FTP helper application and your preferred program to
open ".jpg" files. Keeping these preferences in synch in all your Internet
applications is becoming increasingly difficult. Worse yet, many simple
applications do not even have a mechanism for setting these preferences and
so you are stuck with the author's default preferences.
The Internet Configuration system is a solution to this problem. Internet
Config is an application that allows you to set these preferences once.
Internet Config stores these preferences is a shared database and any "IC
Aware" application will automatically get its preferences from this
database.
You can get IC at http://www.stairways.com/ic/
MacGzip uses the Ostrich approach for Internet Config Prefs. This means that IC settings
are read just at MacGzip startup, if you change them after, 'changes wont apply till nex
time etc etc'
• "Warning! can't read internet preferences. Make sure IC is installed"
IC stands for Internet Config. To avoid this message you can
Install Internet Config (recomended)
Change MacGzip Preferences so it won't ask for IC (and deal with suffixes and types yourself)
Note: since version 1.1, "IC" has been replaced by "Internet Config" in that alert box.
• I have System 6.x. There is a gzip for me?
Yes, you can use a command line interface gzip. It is not supported, and isn't easy to use it;
but anyway, here you are:
ftp://ivo.cps.unizar.es/export/gzip.cpt
ftp://ivo.cps.unizar.es/export/gzip.cpt.hqx
In short, you can start typing -h at the command line and save the output to a file for future reference; then, to expand a file you can use "-d <file>" where <file> is the name of the file you want to expand. (or full name, including path, if the file is not at the same folder as gzip application).(don't forget to use -a for text files!)
