The Very Best of Atari Inside

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ARC File Archive Utility Version 6.00 COPYRIGHT 1985,86,87,88,89 by System Enhancement Associates, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED This document describes version 6.00 of the ARC file utility, which was created by System Enhancement Associates, Inc. in January of 1989. LIMITED WARRANTY IMPORTANT NOTICE:IMPORTANT NOTICE: Any use of this software for any period of time for any purpose whatsoever constitutes your unqualified acceptance of this LICENSE and subjects you to all of the terms and conditions set forth below: System Enhancement Associates, Inc. ("SEA") warrants to any Licensee that acquires the program from SEA or an authorized SEA representative ONLY that: 1) All diskettes SEA provides constitute an accurate duplication of the software and SEA will replace any diskette found to be defective within 30 days from date of acquisition. SEA will not honor this warranty if the diskette has been subjected to physical abuse, or used in defective or non- compatible equipment. 2) SEA's software will perform substantially as described in the documentation SEA regularly supplies with that software, if operated as prescribed in such documentation including the hardware and software environment specified. 3) If a significant defect in any program is found, Licensee's only remedy shall be to receive refund of the actual fee Licensee paid for such defective program. In no event will such a refund exceed the fee SEA charges for such program. 4) SEA makes no warranty or representation that the software will be error free nor that its use by Licensee will be uninterrupted. Except as provided above, SEA disclaims all other warranties, either express or implied, including but not limited to any implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. Licensee agrees to take full responsibility for the selection of and any use whatsoever made of the software. IN NO EVENT WILL SEA BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION OR THE LIKE) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF, INTERRUPTION IN THE USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF SEA HAS BEEN ADVISED OF ANY POSSIBILITY OR LIKELYHOOD OF SUCH DAMAGES. TABLE OF CONTENTS _______ ____ Section Page Introduction .................................... 1 Using ARC ....................................... 3 ARC commands .................................... 5 Adding files ................................ 5 Extracting files ............................ 8 Deleting files .............................. 9 Listing archive entries ..................... 9 Running files ............................... 12 Printing files .............................. 13 Testing an archive .......................... 13 Converting an archive ....................... 14 ARC options ..................................... 15 Directories ................................. 15 Level 5 compatibility ....................... 15 Verbose mode ................................ 16 Backup retention ............................ 16 Suppressing compression ..................... 17 Message suppression ......................... 18 Encryption/Decryption ....................... 19 Indirection ..................................... 21 RAMdisk support ................................. 22 Version numbers ................................. 23 Common questions and answers .................... 24 Maintenance contracts ........................... 26 Revision history ................................ 27 Changes in version 5 ........................ 27 Changes in version 5.3 ...................... 29 Changes in version 6.0 ...................... 29 Program history and credits ..................... 31 Bulletin boards ................................. 33 Site licenses ................................... 34 BLANK PAGE ARC Page 0 INTRODUCTION ARC is the copyrighted property of System Enhancement Associates, Inc. You are granted a limited license to use ARC, and to copy it and distribute it, provided that the following conditions are met: 1) No fee may be charged for such copying and distribution. ____ 2) ARC may only be distributed in its original, unmodified state. ___ 3) ARC may not be distributed, in whole or in part, as part of any commercial product or service without the express written permission of System Enhancement Associates. Contributions for the use of this program will be appreciated, and should be sent to: System Enhancement Associates, Inc. 21 New Street, Wayne NJ 07470 You may not use this product in a commercial environment or a governmental organization without paying a license fee of $35. Site licenses and commercial distribution licenses are available. A program disk and printed documentation are available for $50. See the order form enclosed with this manual for more details. ARC is user supported software. This means that you may copy it freely and give the copies away to anyone you wish, at no cost. They are in turn requested to send in a contribution if they decide to use it. The user supported software concept (often referred to _________ as shareware) is an attempt to provide software at low cost. The cost of offering a new product by conventional means is staggering, and hence dissuades many independent authors and small companies from developing and promoting their ideas. User supported software is an attempt to develop a new marketing channel where products can be introduced at low cost. ARC Page 1 If user supported software works, then everyone will benefit. The user will benefit by receiving quality products at low cost, and by being able to "test drive" software thoroughly before purchasing it. The author benefits by being able to enter the commercial software arena without first needing large sources of venture capital. But it can only work with your support. We're not ___just talking about ARC here, but about all user supported software. If you obtain a user supported program from a friend or colleague, and are still using it after a couple of weeks, then it is obviously worth something to you, and a contribution should be sent. And now, back to ARC: ARC is used to create and maintain file archives. An archive is a group of files collected together into one file in such a way that the individual files may be recovered intact. ARC automatically compresses the files being archived so that the resulting archive takes up a minimum amount of space. When ARC is used to add a file to an archive it analyzes the file to determine which of three storage methods will result in the greatest savings. These three methods are: 1) No compression; the file is stored as is. 2) Repeated-character compression; repeated sequences of the same byte value are collapsed into a three- byte code sequence. 3) Dynamic Lempel-Ziv compression; the file is stored as a series of variable size bit codes which represent character strings, and which are created "on the fly". Note that since one of the three methods involves no compression at all, the resulting archive entry will never be larger than the original file. ARC Page 2 USING ARC ARC is invoked with a command of the following format: ARC <x> <arcname> [<template> . . .] Where: <x> is an ARC command letter (see below), in either upper or lower case. <arcname> is the name of the archive to act on, with or without an extension. If no extension is supplied, then ".ARC" is assumed. The archive name may include path and drive specifiers. <template> is one or more file name templates. The "wildcard" characters "*" and "?" may be used. A file name template may include a path or drive specifier, though it isn't always meaningful. If ARC is invoked with no arguments (by typing "ARC", and pressing "enter"), then a brief command summary is displayed. Following is a brief summary of the available ARC commands: a = add files to archive m = move files to archive u = update files in archive f = freshen files in archive d = delete files from archive x,e = extract files from archive r = run files from archive p = copy files from archive to standard output l = list files in archive v = verbose listing of files in archive t = test archive integrity c = convert entry to new storage method ARC Page 3 Following is a brief summary of the available ARC options, which may alter how a command works: m = move files to archive z = include subdirectories in archive v = verbose mode b = retain backup copy of archive s = suppress compression (store only) w = suppress warning messages n = suppress notes and comments o = overwrite existing files when extracting 5 = produce only level 5 compatable archives g = encode or decode archive entry ARC Page 4 ARC COMMANDS This section describes each of the commands. ARC will accept any one command at a time. If no commands are given, then a brief command list is displayed. ____________ ADDING FILES Files are added to an archive using the "A" (Add), "U" (Update), or "F" (Freshen) commands. Add always adds the file. Update differs from Add in that the file is only added if it is not already in the archive, or if it is newer that the corresponding entry in the archive. Freshen is similar to Update, except that new files are not added to the archive; only files already in the archive are updated. For example, if you wish to add a file named "TEST.DAT" to an archive named "MY.ARC", you would use a command of the form: ARC a my test.dat If you wanted to add all files with a ".C" extension, and all files named "STUFF" to an archive named "JUNK.ARC", you could type: ARC a junk *.c stuff.* If you have an archive named "TEXT.ARC", and you wanted to add to it all of your files with an extension of ".TXT" which have been created or changed since they were last archived, then you would type: ARC u text *.txt ARC Page 5 If you have a bunch of files in your current directory, with backup copies being stored in an archive named "SAFE.ARC", then if you wanted to make sure that every file in the archive is the latest version of that file, you would type: ARC f safe A word about Update and Freshen: These are similar in that they look at the date and time of last change on the file, and only add it if the file has been changed since it was last archived. They differ in that Update will add new files, while Freshen will not. In other words, Update looks for the files on disk, and adds them if they are new or have changed, while Freshen looks in the archive, and tries to update the files which are already there. The Add, Update, and Freshen commands may be modified by the "M" (Move) option. The Move option tells ARC to delete the file on disk once it is safely tucked away in the archive. For example, if you wanted to move all files in your current directory into an archive named "SUM.ARC", you could use a command of the form: ARC am sum *.* When Move is combined with Update or Freshen, it deletes the files that are in the archive, even if it does not need to compress them again. For example, suppose you extracted several files from an archive named "STUFF.ARC" and then made changes to a few of them. Now you want to pack away the new versions of what you changed, and clean up the mess (that is, delete all the files you extracted). You can do it easily by using the command: ARC fm stuff If the Move option is given by itself, it acts like an "Add and Move". So in our earlier example of moving everything in your current directory into an archive named "SUM.ARC", you could also use the command: ARC m sum *.* ARC Page 6 If you don't say which files to add, ARC adds everything in your current directory. So we could shorten that to: ARC m sum Archive entries are always maintained in alphabetic order. Archive entries may not have duplicate names. If you add a file to an archive that already contains a file by that name, then the existing entry in the archive is replaced. Also, the archive itself and its backup will not be added. You may also add a file which is in a directory other than your current directory. For example, it is perfectly legal to type: ARC a junk c:\dustbin\stuff.txt You cannot add two files with the same name. In other words, if you have a file named "C:\DUSTBIN\STUFF.TXT" and another file named "C:\BUCKET\STUFF.TXT", then typing: arc a junk c:\dustbin\*.* c:\bucket\*.* will not work. ARC does not save the path name in this case. In other words, if you specify a drive and/or path when adding a file, only the actual file name is stored in the archive. ___ However, you can store a subdirectory in an archive, but you have to tell ARC that you want to do that. When you add the "Z" option to an Add, Update, or Freshen, ARC will store subdirectories and their contents in such a way that it can later recreate them. For example, suppose you have a directory name C:\WASTE that you wish to place in an archive named "TRASHCAN.ARC". You could do this with the command: ARC az trashcan c:\waste This would cause ARC to place the C:\WASTE directory (and all of its contents, including any subdirec- tories) into the TRASHCAN.ARC archive. The directory ARC Page 7 is stored in such a way that it can be extracted anywhere. It could, for example, be extracted as D:\JUNKYARD\WASTE if you so desired. If you combine the "Z" and "M" options, then the directories are removed from your disk once they are safely stored in the archive. ARC will not add an archive to itself, nor will it add the temporary copy or a backup copy of the archive. An interesting note: It has been brought to our attention that BASIC programs compress to a smaller ___size when they are not tokenized. If you are more concerned with space than speed, you may wish to convert your BASIC programs to ASCII form before adding them to an archive. Your BASIC manual should give instructions on how to do this. ________________EXTRACTING FILES Archive entries are extracted with the "E" (Extract) or "X" (eXtract) commands. For example, if you had an archive named "JUNK.ARC", and you wanted all files in it with an extension of ".TXT" or ".DOC" to be recreated on your disk, you could type: ARC x junk *.txt *.doc If you wanted to extract all of the files in an archive named "JUNK.ARC", you could simply type: ARC x junk Whatever method of file compression was used in storing the files is reversed, and uncompressed copies are created in the current directory. You can also specify a path name, in which case the decompressed copy is placed in the specified directory. For example, if you had an archive named "JUNK.ARC", and you wanted all files in it with an extension of ".TXT" to be placed in the directory "C:\WASTE\LAND", then you could type: ARC x junk c:\waste\land\*.txt ARC Page 8 If you wanted to put the file "TRASH.TXT" on your A: drive, and the file "LITTER.TXT" on your B: drive, you could type: ARC x junk a:trash.txt b:litter.txt If you give more than one path for a file, then only the first one is used. For example, if you typed: ARC x junk a:trash.txt b:trash.txt then TRASH.TXT will be placed on your A: drive. ______________ DELETING FILES Archive entries are deleted with the "D" (Delete) command. For example, if you had an archive named "JUNK.ARC", and you wished to delete all entries in it with a filename extension of ".C", you could type: ARC d junk *.c _______________________ LISTING ARCHIVE ENTRIES You can obtain a list of the contents of an archive by using the "L" (List) command or the "V" (Verbose list) command. For example, to see what is in an archive named "JUNK.ARC", you could type: ARC l junk If you are only interested in files with an extension of ".DOC", then you could type: ARC l junk *.doc ARC prints a short listing of an archive's contents like this: Name Length Date ============ ======== ========= ALPHA.TXT 6784 16 May 85 BRAVO.TXT 2432 16 May 85 COCO.TXT 256 16 May 85 ==== ======== Total 3 9472 ARC Page 9 "Name" is simply the name of the file. "Length" is the unpacked file length. In other words, it is the number of bytes of disk space which the file would take up if it were extracted. "Date" is the date on which the file had last been modified, as of the time when it was added to the archive. "Total" is pretty obvious, I think. ARC prints a verbose listing of an archive's contents like this: Name Length Stowage SF Size now Date Time CRC ============ ======== ======== ==== ======== ========= ====== ==== ALPHA.TXT 6784 Crunched 35% 4413 16 May 85 11:53a 8708 BRAVO.TXT 2432 Crunched 41% 1438 16 May 85 11:53a 5BD6 COCO.TXT 256 Packed 5% 244 16 May 85 11:53a 3AFB ==== ======== ==== ======== Total 3 9472 27% 6095 "Name", "Length", and "Date" are the same as for a short listing. "Stowage" is the compression method used. The following compression methods are currently known: -- No compression. Packed Runs of repeated byte values are collapsed. Crunched Lempel-Ziv compression technique employed. Squeezed Huffman encoding compression technique, as employed by an earlier version of ARC. Deviant A nonstandard variant of Lempel-Ziv was employed. Files compressed with this method should be converted (with the "C" command). Subdir A subdirectory. The files within the subdirectory may be viewed by using the "Z" option. ARC Page 10 "SF" is the stowage factor. In other words, it is the percentage of the file length which was saved by compression. The total stowage factor is the stowage factor for the archive as a whole, not counting archive overhead. "Size now" is the number of bytes the file is occupying while in the archive. "Time" is the time of last modification, and is associated with the date of last modification. "CRC" is the CRC check value which has been stored with the file. Another CRC value will be calculated when the file is extracted or tested to ensure data integrity. There is no especially good reason for displaying this value. ARC follows a verbose listing with a report giving the overall compression for everything in the archive and for anything specific you selected, along with a prediction of whether or not the files would fit on your disk if you tried to extract them. For example, if you wanted to know if all of the files with an extension of ".TXT" in an archive named "WASTE.ARC" would fit on your D: drive, you would give the command: ARC v waste d:*.txt At the end of the listing ARC would give its prediction of whether or not your D: drive has room for those files. ARC Page 11 _____________RUNNING FILES Archive entries may be run without being extracted by use of the "R" (Run) command. For example, if you had an archive named "JUNK.ARC" which contained a file named "LEMON.COM", which you wished to run, you could type: ARC r junk lemon You can run any file from an archive which has an extension of ".COM", ".EXE", ".BAT", or ".BAS". You do not have to specify the extension, but all matching files are run if you do not. In other words, if you had an archive named "JUNK.ARC" which contained the files "LEMON.COM", "LEMON.EXE", and "LEMON.BAS", and you typed: ARC r junk lemon Then all three programs will be run. You can avoid this by specifying an extension in this case. You can give arguments to the program you are running by appending them to the command line. For example, if you have an archive named "JUNK.ARC" which contains a program named "LEMON.COM", and you wanted to run it giving it the argument "JUICE", you would type: ARC r junk lemon juice You will need a fair amount of memory to run a program from an archive. It probably cannot be done with less than 256k. In practice, the file to be run is extracted, run, and then deleted. In other words, the above example is equivalent to: ARC x junk lemon.com lemon juice erase lemon.com If you have an archive which contains a program that you will be running often, then you should probably extract the program from the archive and use it normally. ARC Page 12 ______________ PRINTING FILES Archive entries may be examined with the "P" (Print) command. This works the same as the Extract command, except that the files are not created on disk. Instead, the contents of the files are written to standard output. For example, if you wanted to see the contents of every ".TXT" file in an archive named "JUNK.ARC", but didn't want them saved on disk, you could type: ARC p junk *.txt If you wanted them to be printed on your printer instead of on your screen, you could type: ARC p junk *.txt >prn __________________ TESTING AN ARCHIVE The integrity of an archive may be tested by use of the "T" (Test) command. This checks to make sure that all of the file headers are properly placed, and that all of the files are in good shape. This can be very useful for critical archives, where data integrity must be assured. When an archive is tested, all of the entries in the archive are unpacked (without saving them anywhere) so that a CRC check value may be calculated and compared with the recorded CRC value. For example, if you just received an archive named "JUNK.ARC" over a phone line, and you want to make sure that you received it properly, you could type: ARC t junk It defeats the purpose of the T command to combine it with N or W. ARC Page 13 _____________________CONVERTING AN ARCHIVE The "C" (Convert) command is used to convert an archive entry to take advantage of newer compression techniques. This is occasionally desirable when a new version of ARC is released. Please refer to the revision history section for details on when new compression methods were implemented. For example, if you had an archive named "JUNK.ARC", and you wanted to make sure that all files with an extension of ".DOC" were encoded using the very latest methods, you could type: ARC c junk *.doc Or if you wanted to convert every file in the archive, you could type: ARC c junk ARC Page 14 ARC OPTIONS This section describes the options which are available to modify how ARC works. Any of these options can be combined with any of the commands, though the result may not always be something you'd want to do. ___________ DIRECTORIES The "Z" option tells ARC that you wish to act on directories as well as files. When combined with Add, Update, Freshen, or Move it tells ARC to add directories to the archive. When combined with List or Verbose it tells ARC to list directory contents. (The Extract command will always extract directories, and does not need to be told to do so.) A directory is treated as a unit by ARC. This means that when you add a directory to an archive you add the whole thing, including all of its files and subdirectories. Likewise, when you extract a directory from an archive you get all of it. If you wish to make a change to a directory that is in an archive, you should extract it, then make whatever changes you want on disk, and then put the directory back into the archive. _____________________ LEVEL 5 COMPATIBILITY The "5" (level 5 compatibility) option can be combined with any comand that alters an archive. It tells ARC that the resulting archive should be fully compatible with ARC version 5. This is mostly necessary for creating archives that are to be extracted on other operating systems where the version of ARC available for that system does not yet support the ARC version 6 extensions. When given the level 5 compatibility option, ARC will ensure that the resulting archive does not contain any directories, comments, or any extended data fields for non-MS-DOS operating systems. ARC Page 15 ____________VERBOSE MODE The "V" (Verbose) option can be used with any command, though it isn't always meaningful. When used with the List command it causes ARC to display a "verbose listing" of the archive contents. In fact, this is its most common use, so you can use the Verbose option as a command for this purpose. When used with any command that creates a new archive (generally during an Add or a Move), it tells ARC to add a note to the archive saying which version of ARC created the archive. This note is then automatically updated every time the archive is modified, and is displayed during a verbose listing. Normally when ARC adds files to an archive or deletes files from an archive it doesn't say anything about the files it isn't changing. When you use the verbose option ARC will report them. ________________BACKUP RETENTION When ARC changes an archive (during an Add, Move, Update, Freshen, Delete, or Convert) it creates a new archive with the same name, but with an extension of ".$$$". For example, if you add a file to an archive named STUFF.ARC, then ARC will create a new archive named STUFF.$$$. ARC will read from your existing archive and write out the new archive with any changes to the ".$$$" copy. Normally when ARC is finished it deletes the original and renames the new archive to the original name (ie. STUFF.ARC goes away, and STUFF.$$$ becomes the new STUFF.ARC). Among other things, this means that if anything goes wrong and ARC is unable to finish, then your original archive will still be intact. In some circumstances you may wish to retain the original version of the archive as a backup copy. You can do this easily by using the Backup option. Add the letter "B" to your command, and ARC will rename your original archive to have an extension of ".BAK" instead of deleting it. ARC Page 16 In other words, if you wanted to add "WASTE.TXT" to an archive named "JUNK.ARC", but wanted to keep a backup copy, then you would type: ARC ab junk waste.txt Your original archive would become "JUNK.BAK", while "JUNK.ARC" would contain the new "WASTE.TXT" file. If you keep a backup of an archive which already has a backup, then the older backup copy is deleted. _______________________ SUPPRESSING COMPRESSION The "S" (Suppress compression) option can be combined with any command that updates archive entries. These include Add, Move, Update, Freshen, and Convert. The effect of the S option is to prevent any compression techniques from being employed. This is intended to allow you to add a few files at a time to an archive quickly, and then later convert the archive to compress everything at once. For example, over the course of a day you might give each of the following commands: ARC as junk *.txt ARC as junk *.mac ARC as junk *.doc At the end of the day, when you have finished adding things to the archive, you could have all of the archive entries compressed at once by typing: ARC c junk You could also decompress the archive by typing: ARC cs junk though I can't imagine why you'd want to. ARC Page 17 ___________________MESSAGE SUPPRESSION ARC prints three types of messages: warnings, comments, and errors. Warnings are messages about suspected error conditions, such as when a file to be extracted already exists, or when an extracted file fails the CRC error check. Warnings may be suppressed by use of the "W" (Warn) command. You should use this command sparingly. In fact, you should probably not use this command at all. Comments (or notes) are informative messages, such as naming each file as it is added to the archive. Comments and notes may be suppressed by use of the "N" (Note) command. Errors are actual system problems, such as running out of disk space. You cannot suppress errors. For example, suppose you extracted all files with an extension of ".BAS" from an archive named "JUNK.ARC" Then, after making some changes which you decide not to keep, you decide that you want to extract them all again, but you don't want to be asked to confirm every one. In this case, you could type: ARC xw junk *.bas Or, if you are going to add a hundred files with an extension of ".MSG" to an archive named "TRASH.ARC", and you don't want ARC to list them as it adds them, you could type: ARC an trash *.msg Or, if you want to extract the entire contents of an archive named "JUNK.ARC", and you don't want to hear anything, then type: ARC xnw junk A special case is provided when extracting files from an archive. One of the various warnings that can occur is when a file being extracted already exists on disk. Normally, ARC will stop and ask you if you want to overwrite the file. This can be suppressed with the "W" command, but that will also suppress any ARC Page 18 warnings about other things, like failed CRC checks and such. ____ The "O" (Overwrite) option suppresses only the warning that the file already exists. For example, in our earlier case of extracting all the ".BAS" files from "JUNK.ARC", a much safer way to do it is to type: ARC xo junk *.BAS _____________________ ENCRYPTION/DECRYPTION Archive entries may be encrypted and decrypted by using the "G" (Garble) option. The Garble option takes the remainder of the command string as the ____ password to use, so it must be the last option. For example, if you wanted to add a file named "WASTE.TXT" to an archive named "JUNK.ARC", and you wanted to encrypt it using the password "DEBRIS", then you would type: ARC agdebris junk waste.txt Later on, when you want to extract it again, you would type: ARC xgdebris junk waste.txt The password you supply is used to encrypt (or decrypt) the archive entry by performing an exclusive OR between each byte of the packed data and each byte of the password. The password can be any length, and each of its bytes is used in rotation. The password is converted to uppercase before it is used, so it is ___ not case sensitive. Since the encryption is performed on the packed data, it has no effect on stowage factors. This is not a particularly sophisticated means of encryption. Still, since it is performed on the packed data, the result should be quite sufficient for casual use. ARC Page 19 You can, if you wish, use different passwords for different files in an archive, but we advise against it. If you are going to encrypt an archive, we suggest you use the same password for every file, and give the password whenever you do anything at all with the archive. It is possible to list the entries in an encrypted archive using the "L" and "V" commands without giving the password, but nothing else will work properly. We advise that you use this option sparingly, if at all. If you should forget or mistype your password, it is highly unlikely that you will ever recover your data. ARC Page 20 INDIRECTION The list of filenames given to ARC may include indirect references. If a filename begins with an "at sign" ("@"), it is taken to be the name of a file which contains a list of file names. The list of file names may include further indirection. For example, the command: arc a waste junk.txt @trash would cause ARC to add JUNK.TXT plus all files listed in the file TRASH to an archive named WASTE.ARC. If no file is specified, then the list is read from standard input. When the N option (suppress Notes) is used with the L (List files) command, it causes a terse listing of filenames only, suitable for use with pipes and redirection. This can be combined with indirection to easily perform many tasks. For example, the command: arc ln waste | arc a trash @ would cause ARC to add files to TRASH.ARC based on the names of the files stored in WASTE.ARC. If by some chance you want to archive a file whose ____ name really does begin with an at sign, then preceed the name with a forward slash ("/"). For example, to add a file named "@DUST.DAT" to an archive named "TRASHCAN.ARC", you would type: arc a trashcan /@dust.dat The MARC program also allows for indirection. ARC Page 21 RAMDISK SUPPORT If you have a RAMdisk, or other high-speed storage, then you can speed up ARC somewhat by telling it to put its temporary files on the RAMdisk. You do this by setting the ARCTEMP environment string with the MS-DOS SET command. For example, if drive B: is your RAMdisk, then you would type: set ARCTEMP=B: Refer to the MS-DOS manual for more details about the SET command. You need only set the ARCTEMP string once, and ARC will use it from then on until you change its value or reboot your system. If ARC does not find an environment string named ARCTEMP, then it looks for one named TEMP to use instead. Several packages already use the TEMP string for exactly this purpose. If you have need of an environment string named TEMP for something else, then you should be sure to define ARCTEMP. There are a limited number of temporary files created by ARC. The Convert command uses a file named "$ARCTEMP.CVT" to hold each file as it is being converted. The Run command also creates a temporary file, which has the name "$ARCTEMP", and whose extension matches that of the file being run. ARC Page 22 VERSION NUMBERS There seems to be some confusion about our version numbering scheme. All of our version numbers are given as a number with two decimal places. The units indicate a major revision, such as adding a new packing algorithm. The first decimal place (tenths) indicates a minor revision that is not essential, but which may be desired. The second decimal place (hundredths) indicates a trivial revision that will probably only be desired by specific individuals or by die-hard "latest version" fanatics. ARC also displays its date and time of last edit. A change of the date and time without a corresponding change in version number indicates a truly trivial change, such as fixing a spelling error. To sum up: If the units change, then you should get the newer version as soon as you can. If the tenths change, then you may want to get the newer version, but there's no hurry. If anything else changes, then you probably shouldn't bother. ARC Page 23 COMMON QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Here are some of the more common questions we've received about ARC, along with their answers: Q: Why does ARC run out of room if I make an archive bigger than about 180k? A: Because you are working on a floppy disk. ARC creates a copy of your archive, incorporating any new files as it goes. When it is done, it deletes the original and renames the new one. There are a number of reasons for doing it this way, one being that your original archive is still intact if anything happens while ARC is running. You can save some space by using drive specifiers and having the archive and the files to add on separate disks, but you still won't be able to make an archive larger than about 180k. If you need to make a larger archive, and if you have a fixed disk, then you can create the archive on the fixed disk and then copy it to the floppy. Q: I've seen an ARC.COM and an ARC.EXE. Which one is the right one? A: ARC.EXE. One or more people have been running ARC through a utility that converts an ".EXE" file to a ".COM" file. But this utility is designed to save _____ space, not speed. On ARC it saves about 250 bytes, and makes no measurable difference in program speed. We've decided that the savings are not worth the extra step in development in this case. Q: How can I get the latest version of ARC? A: ARC updates are distributed through normal shareware channels. We also ship a program update disk on every order of $50 or more. Also, please refer to the next section for information about our maintenance contracts. ARC Page 24 Q: Can I distribute my public domain or shareware program in an ARC format archive? A: Yes, of course. Q: Can I use ARC to distribute my commercial software package? A: Yes, provided that you obtain a commercial distribution license from us. Please contact us for details. Q: Why not allow me to select which method of compression I want ARC to use? A: It would needlessly complicate ARC, both internally and in use. The exact nature of the compression methods used are complex, and quite different. The only sure way to tell which will be best in any given case is to analyze the data, as ARC does. The method chosen may not always be what you expect. Q: ARC keeps giving me an odd error message. It says "Drive not ready. Abort, Retry, Ignore?" What does this mean? A: Close the latches ("doors") on your floppy disk drives, then press the "R" key. Q: How can I tell ARC to make an archive that goes on more than one floppy disk? A: Create the archive on your fixed disk, and then use the BACKUP command (or other backup utility). ARC Page 25 MAINTENANCE CONTRACTS Registered users of ARC receive 30 days of telephone support at no extra charge. If you wish, you can extend this by purchasing a maintenance contract. A maintenance contract costs $50 per year. In addition to telephone support you also receive free updates to ARC as soon as they are available, and a ______ _____free subscription to Making Waves, the SEA customer support newsletter. ARC Page 26 REVISION HISTORY ____________________ CHANGES IN VERSION 5 The Move command used to delete the files as it went. It now waits until it is finished updating the ___ archive, and deletes them all at once. (You did know that Move is just an Add where the file gets deleted, didn't you?) This, along with the changes made in version 4.5, means that it is now much safer to interrupt ARC while it is working. The Print command no longer prints the name of each file. Instead, it prints a formfeed after each file. The Run command now supports BASICA programs. Also, the filename extension is no longer required on the Run command. The Garble option was added. It provides a convenient means of low level data security for the casual user. Use it sparingly, if at all. ARC no longer tests for the presence of $ARCTEMP.CRN before creating a new one. If you interrupt ARC a lot, you'll find this much more convenient. If you happen to have a file named $ARCTEMP.CRN which you want to keep, too bad. Improved error recovery was added when reading an archive. ARC now has a good chance of recovering the data from a corrupted archive (the corrupted entry is still lost, of course). Path support has been added for all commands, though it doesn't do anything on most of them. For example, there isn't much we can do with a path in the List command. But many users will be glad to know that a path can be used when extracting a file, and specifies where the file is to be placed. Support for the TEMP environment string was added. If ARC doesn't find an environment string named ARCTEMP, then it looks for one named TEMP to use instead. Several packages already use the TEMP string for exactly this purpose. ARC Page 27 ARC is now using a different variation of Lempel-Ziv coding, courtesy of Kent Williams, who found it on USENET and adapted it to the IBM PC. The new method differs from the old in several respects. The most significant differences are: 1) Where our previous implementation used a fixed code size of twelve bits, the new one starts with a code size of nine bits and increases it as it needs to. 2) The earlier method tended to "choke" on large files when its string table filled up. The new method has a rather ingenious scheme its authors call ______________ adaptive reset. When it notices that its string table has filled, and its compression ratio is starting to suffer, it clears the table and starts defining new strings. The previous implementation of Lempel-Ziv coding is no longer used to pack files. The "V" (Verbose listing) command distinguishes between the two by referring to the older method as "crunched" (with a lower-case "c"), and the newer method as "Crunched" (with a capital "C"). Rick Moore discovered that ARC was occasionally adding an archive to itself. This would only happen when the archive is in the same directory as the files being added, and its name comes last. This bug has been fixed, though it is still possible to fool ARC into adding an archive to itself by getting tricky with path names. Dana Montgomery found the upper limit on how many files can be added to an archive. There's always been an upper limit, but it depends on memory, and used to be larger than anyone could possibly want (knock on wood). However, the added memory requirements as of version 5.0 lowered this limit into the realm of possibility, somewhere around 300 files. We change some things around, and effectively, there is no longer a limit on how many files you can add at once. ARC will add the files in batches of as many as it can handle at one time. The Run command has been modified to allow passing command line arguments to the program being run. Indirection was added, and the List command was modified to give a terse listing suitable for use with indirection when the N option is employed. ARC Page 28 A bug was found that would keep an archive entry from being encrypted if it was stored without compression. This has now been fixed. If changes are made to a corrupted archive, the corrupted entries are discarded. This makes it possible to lose data accidentally. ARC will now only make changes to a corrupted archive if the W (suppress Warnings) option has been given. Support for a nonstandard variation of Lempel-Ziv was added. Two new utilities, SCANDISK and SQDIR, were added to the ARC program disk. Full program sources for both are included in UNDEL.ARC on the ARC source disk. ______________________ CHANGES IN VERSION 5.3 A minor bug caused earlier versions of ARC to output an extra carriage return on an end of line when dumping text to standard output with the "P" command. This has now been fixed. Greatly enhanced error recovery has been added to deal with corrupted or partially damaged archives. The corrupted data itself is still lost, of course, but ARC will recover everything possible. ARC has been fully ported to Microsoft C version 5.1. This has resulted in a small speed improvement, and should make it easier to port ARC to other operating systems. A new utility, MKSARC, was added to the ARC program disk. Regretfully, we cannot release the program sources for MKSARC. ______________________ CHANGES IN VERSION 6.0 Version 6.0 is a major upgrade for ARC. It is a substantial rewrite that greatly improves overall performance. ARC is now as fast as any comparable program, or faster. The changes are primarily in internal organization of the code, so that versions ported to other operating systems should experience a substantial performance boost as well. ARC Page 29 We've also added support for directories, allowing entire directory trees to be added or moved into an archive, and later extracted. We've also designed and implemented a method whereby versions of ARC ported to other operating systems can record system-specific information in a compatible manner. This includes provisions for longer filenames, more date/time stamps, and even icon bitmaps. Contact us for details or see the comments in the ARC sources if you are interested in using this capability in a version of ARC for a different operating system. ARC Page 30 PROGRAM HISTORY AND CREDITS In its short life thus far, ARC has astounded us with its popularity. We first wrote it in March of 1985 because we wanted an archive utility that used a distributive directory approach, since this has certain advantages over the then popular central directory approach. We added automatic squeezing in version 2 at the prompting of a friend. In version 2.1 we added the code to test for the best compression method. In less than a year we found that our humble little program had spread across the country, and seems to have become a new institution. We are thankful for the support and appreciation we have received. We hope that you find this program of use. If we have achieved greatness, it is because we have stood upon the shoulders of giants. Nothing is created as a thing unto itself, and ARC is no exception. Therefore, we would like to give credit to the following people, without whose efforts ARC could not exist: Brian W. Kernighan and P. J. Plauger, whose book "Software Tools" provided many of the ideas behind the distributive directory approach used by ARC. Dick Greenlaw, who wrote the public domain SQ and USQ programs, in which the Huffman squeezing algorithm was first developed. Kent Williams, who graciously allowed us to use his LZWCOM and LZWUNC programs as a basis for our Lempel- Ziv compression logic, and who continues to make valuable contributions. David Schwaderer, whose article in the April 1985 issue of PC Tech Journal provided us with the logic for calculating the CRC 16 bit polynomial. Terry A. Welch, whose article "A Technique for High Performance Data Compression", IEEE Computer Vol 17 No 6 (June 1984) seems to have started all the research on Lempel-Ziv coding. ARC Page 31 Spencer W. Thomas, Jim McKie, Steve Davies, Ken Turkowski, James A. Woods, and Joe Orost, who are the authors of the UNIX compress utility. Karl Schinke, who is the friend that suggested that we add compression to ARC. Alex Jacobs, who in June of 1985 sent us the very first shareware contribution we ever received. And many, many others whom we could not identify. ARC Page 32 BULLETIN BOARDS ARC is distributed mainly through shareware channels. Among other things, this means that ARC is available from many bulletin board systems. In fact, the system operators (sysops) of many bulletin boards have taken to storing almost all of their downloadable files in archives to save themselves disk space and to save their users time. This also makes things more convenient for the bulletin board users, since one archive may contain several programs, any related data files, and the documentation. Many shareware authors have taken to distributing their software in archives to help ensure that the users receive everything. Obviously, we can't do that with ARC. As a result, many of our users have ARC, but don't have the manual. Most of our customer support calls come from people who have never seen the manual, and in many cases didn't even know that one exists! To solve this problem we developed what is in essence a self-unpacking archive. We distribute this as "ARCxxx.EXE", where "xxx" is the current version number. For example, ARC version 6.00 would be distributed as "ARC600.EXE". This program, when run, unpacks itself into a copy of ARC plus its documentation. Now that we've gone to all that work, we'd really appreciate it if you would use this program when you distribute ARC. ARC Page 33 SITE LICENSES Corporate users may wish to obtain a site license for the use of ARC. Please use the order form in this manual to order a site license. Site licenses are granted as of when we receive your payment. License fees vary depending on the number of computers on which ARC will be used, as follows: 1 machine $50 2 to 9 machines $35 per machine 10 to 24 machines $25 per machine 25 to 49 machines $20 per machine 50 or more machines $15 per machine 100 or more machines at one location $1500 Enclosed is a site license agreement, which should be signed and sent with your payment when ordering a commercial site license. A commercial site license does not include additional copies of the ARC program disk and the ARC manual. Instead, you make your own copies of the disk and manual as you need them. If you wish, you can order additional program disks and manuals from us. ARC Page 34