ARCUTIL version 2.0
ARCUTIL version 2.0
ARCUTIL version 2.0
ARCUTIL version 2.0
07 May 1991
John S. Fisher
ARCUTIL Version 2.0
ARCUTIL Version 2.0
ARCUTIL Version 2.0
ARCUTIL Version 2.0
ARCUTIL Version 2.0
ARCUTIL Version 2.0
ARCUTIL Version 2.0
ARCUTIL Version 2.0
PREFACE
PREFACE
PREFACE
PREFACE
_______
The ARCUTIL program provides a collection of functions for
the manipulation of distribution files from public domain
software archive systems on a main-frame host computer.
This document describes the version of ARCUTIL designated
Version 2.0. ARCUTIL executes on IBM systems using the
VM/SP operating system. It provides the following func-
tions.
® Recover the original data for a file that has been en-
coded using either the uuencoding or xxencoding method.
® Render a file in encoded form, either uuencoded or
xxencoded.
® Recover the original data for a file that has been
"squeezed."
® Recover the original data for a file that has been
"crunched" using version 2 of the GEL Crunch program.
® Extract and decompress all members from a .ARC or .ARK
library file.
® Extract and decompress all members from a .LBR library
file.
® Extract and decompress all members from a .ZIP library
file.
® Translate files of ASCII text to EBCDIC, with or without
ASA carriage control generation.
Users are encouraged to correct bugs and enhance the prod-
uct. Such modifications should be sent to the address below
for inclusion in subsequent releases.
Questions, comments, contributions may be sent to
BITNET FISHER@RPIECS
INTERNET FISHER@VM.ECS.RPI.EDU
USPS John S. Fisher
Engineering Computing Services
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, NY 12180 3590
Copyright (c) 1986-1991, John S. Fisher, Troy, NY.
Preface ii
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Permission is granted to copy and distribute this documenta-
tion in any form to any one as long as (1) this notice of
copyright and distribution policy remain intact, (2) the
distribution is made without charge above and beyond any
reasonable fee to copy costs in making and delivering the
copy, and (3) no additional restrictions are imposed, either
as to use or distribution.
Changes in this release.
Changes in this release.
Changes in this release.
Changes in this release.
________________________
The following enhancements and changes have been made to
ARCUTIL version 2.0.
® Support for .ZIP files has been added. ARCUTIL handles
all of the .ZIP file storage methods known at the time
of this writing.
® Cyclic redundancy checking is performed for .ARC, .LBR
and .ZIP files.
® Support for xxencoding and xxdecoding functions have
been added. Uuencoding has been updated to support cur-
rent practice, but the older version is still available
for compatibility. An option is available with
uuencoding to use a character sequence that is believed
to be compatible with the JANET network gateway.
® The length for output records may be specified as an op-
tion.
® The number of lines per page may be specified.
Except as noted below, ARCUTIL version 2.0 is fully compat-
ible with earlier versions.
® The MEMBER option has been discontinued. Equivalent
functionality is provided by the pattern matching oper-
and after the input file identifier.
® The default fileid for the output from COPY is the
fileid of the input file with a dollar-sign prepended to
the input filename. In the prior version of ARCUTIL,
the output file had the same filename as the input, and
LISTING for the filetype.
® The UUENCODE, UUDECODE, and UNLIB commands have been
superceded by the ENCODE, DECODE, and UNLBR commands.
They are accepted still by ARCUTIL version 2.0, but they
may be discontinued in future versions.
Preface iii
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® A few programming errors have been corrected that caused
extraneous bytes sometimes to appear at the end of out-
put files. The EBCDIC translator no longer discards
blank lines.
Preface iv
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INTRODUCTION TO ARCUTIL
INTRODUCTION TO ARCUTIL
INTRODUCTION TO ARCUTIL
INTRODUCTION TO ARCUTIL
_______________________
A great wealth of public-domain and shareware software is
available through various academic and research networks.
For the MS-DOS an CP/M communities, such software is often
packaged together with documentation and supporting files
into a single archive file so that the entire package may be
_______
shipped as a unit over the network.
For MS-DOS systems archives are built often in the so-called
ZIP format or in the older ARC format. Archives files usu-
___ ___
ally have either .ZIP or .ARC as their file name extension.
In CP/M systems .LBR (for library) and .ARK (exactly the
_______
same as MS-DOS .ARC) files are commonly found.
ARCUTIL is a utility command you can use on your VM/SP or
VM/XA system. It will help you manipulate archive files
that you might have obtained over one of the computer net-
works. ARCUTIL can extract the individual files from ar-
chives of any of the three types mentioned above (.ZIP, .ARC
or .ARK, and .LBR). It can translate from ASCII to EBCDIC,
and it can even generate FORTRAN-style carriage control (ASA
carriage control) if you ask it.
For the sake of an example, assume there is a person in
Potsylvania with whom you frequently correspond. Your
friend, Boris, claims to have what might be conservatively
called the absolute greatest public-domain software product
for the IBM PC ever written, and he agrees to forward you a
copy.
A rather large electronic mail message for you shows up on
your VM/SP host. It is from Boris.
In the message Boris explains that he has enclosed an ar-
chive file for the fabulous GETMOOSE program. Since he is
sending it in as part of a mail message, he has xxencoded
_________
the archive. Archives contain mostly binary data, and mail
systems generally handle only textual information.
Xxencoding is a method for encoding binary data as text that
can be decoded later.
A good first step would be for you to decode the xxencoded
file. Having saved Boris' message in a file called GETMOOSE
XXE, you enter the command
ARCUTIL DECODE GETMOOSE XXE A ( XXENCODE
DECODE is one of ARCUTIL's many functions. ARCUTIL can han-
dle a couple of encoding methods, so you need to tell it
which method was used.
Introduction to ARCUTIL 1
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After only a brief pause, ARCUTIL reports that the file
GETMOOSE ZIP has been created. You wonder what it might
contain:
ARCUTIL UNZIP GETMOOSE ZIP A ( LIST
UNZIP is another of ARCUTIL's many functions. Since you in-
terested in what the ZIP archive has in it, you asked
ARCUTIL to list the directory of the archive and not extract
anything. ARCUTIL responses something like this:
Member name SizeIn SizeOut Method Filename Filetype Comment...
============ ======= ======= ======== ======== ======== ====================
GETMOOSE.C 1911 6300 Implode GETMOOSE C
GETMOOSE.DOC 45177 182524 Implode GETMOOSE DOC
GETMOOSE.EXE 1976 7713 Implode GETMOOSE EXE
SUBS.C 887 2352 Shrink SUBS C
SQUIRREL.DOC 2880 10500 Implode SQUIRREL DOC
You are not a source code freak, so the program source files
excite you not at all, but the two documentation files might
be of interest. One of them is rather large (182,524
bytes); perhaps more than you really want to put through
your poor PC printer. You ask ARCUTIL to extract the docu-
ment files from the archive and translate the ASCII text to
EBCDIC (complete with printer carriage control).
ARCUTIL UNZIP GETMOOSE ZIP A * DOC A ( CCEBCDIC
After examining both the GETMOOSE and SQUIRREL DOC files you
erase the latter and print the former on the system page
printer. The GETMOOSE.DOC file leads you to believe that
maybe Boris was right. This could well be the most wonder-
ful public-domain program around. You cannot wait to try it
out on your PC.
You could download the full archive to your PC, but it is
rather large. Seeing how you have already printed a copy of
the documentation on your host, and you do not really care
about the source code, it seems a shame to wait for the
whole .ZIP file to transfer when all you really need is the
executable. ARCUTIL to the rescue one final time.
ARCUTIL UNZIP GETMOOSE ZIP A GETMOOSE EXE A
You then start the download of just the executable file that
ARCUTIL so kindly extracted. Six thousand three hundred
bytes later you new-found panacea is running on you PC....
Introduction to ARCUTIL 2
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ARCHIVE EXTRACTION FUNCTIONS
ARCHIVE EXTRACTION FUNCTIONS
ARCHIVE EXTRACTION FUNCTIONS
ARCHIVE EXTRACTION FUNCTIONS
____________________________
ARCUTIL has functions to let you extract and decompact mem-
bers from file archives. The three most popular archive
formats used in the MS-DOS and CP/M communities are sup-
ported; .ARC, .LBR, and .ZIP files are all handled. (.ARK
files found among CP/M systems are identical in format to
.ARC files.)
ARCUTIL also has functions to let you decompact files that
were compacted using either the squeeze or the crunch
_______ ______
method. Both methods are still occasionally used among CP/M
users. Squeezed files typically have the letter Q as the
second character in the filetype field (or file extension,
in microcomputer terminology). Crunched files have the let-
ter Z.
ARCUTIL may be invoked with the command
ARCUTIL cmd infileid outfileid ( options...
where
cmd specifies which function you want ARCUTIL to per-
___
form. Select one of the following.
UNARC process a .ARC or .ARK file.
UNLBR process a .LBR file.
UNZIP process a .ZIP file.
UNSQ process a squeezed (.?Q?) file.
UNCR process a crunched (.?Z?) file.
infileid specifies which CMS file you want ARCUTIL to proc-
________
ess. You must provide the full filename,
filetype, and filemode for your input file.
outfileid specifies which members of the archive you want
_________
ARCUTIL to extract and where they should be writ-
ten. The filename and filetype fields may contain
wild card symbols to be used in pattern matching.
_________
An asterisk matches any string of characters; a
percent matches any single character; other char-
acters match only themselves. The filemode tells
ARCUTIL where to write the output files. If an
outfileid is not included on the command line,
ARCUTIL will use * * A1.
Archive Extraction Functions 3
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options... specify processing options for the function. The
__________
more commonly used options include
REPLACE tells ARCUTIL that a file extracted from
the archive may replace an existing CMS
file by the same name. If REPLACE is
not specified, ARCUTIL skips any member
that would conflict with an existing
file.
EBCDIC tells ARCUTIL to translate the member
data from ASCII to EBCDIC. Carriage re-
turns, linefeeds, and formfeeds are
treated as end of record indications;
tabs are expanded to spaces.
CCEBCDIC tells ARCUTIL to translate the member
data from ASCII to EBCDIC and to gener-
ate ASA carriage control characters for
each line. Carriage returns, linefeeds,
and formfeeds are converted to the ap-
propriate carriage control; tabs are ex-
panded to spaces.
NL tells ARCUTIL that linefeed symbols
should be treated as a newline. The NL
option is meaningful only with the
EBCDIC and CCEBCDIC options.
LIST tells ARCUTIL that only the directory
information should be produced. No data
should be extracted.
Archive Extraction Functions 4
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ENCODING AND DECODING FILES
ENCODING AND DECODING FILES
ENCODING AND DECODING FILES
ENCODING AND DECODING FILES
___________________________
For many netorks it may not be possible to conveniently
transmit binary data. The various types of archives and
compacted file formats used for software packages all use
binary data, so to have such files sent through a network
may require that the data be encoded by some scheme that re-
presents binary information using only plain-text charac-
ters.
Two very closely related encoding methods in common use are
uuencoding and xxencoding. Both methods represent each six
__________ __________
bits of binary data with an eight-bit character (and so en-
coded files are roughly one-third larger than the original).
Uuencoding is the older of the two, but it has limitations
when both ASCII and EBCDIC systems are involved in the net-
work transfer. Xxencoding avoids this problem by using a
character sequence for its encoding that avoids
discrepencies between the ASCII and EBCDIC character sets.
ARCUTIL has functions to encode and decode files using ei-
ther the uuencode or xxencode methods. ARCUTIL may be in-
voked with the command
ARCUTIL cmd infileid outfileid ( options...
where
cmd specifies which function you want ARCUTIL to per-
___
form. Select one of the following.
ENCODE encode a file.
DECODE decode a file.
infileid specifies which CMS file you want ARCUTIL to proc-
________
ess. You must provide the full filename,
filetype, and filemode for your input file.
outfileid for the ENCODE function, this specifies the name
_________
of the file ARCUTIL should create. A complete CMS
fileid (filename, filetype, and filemode) should
be entered. For the DECODE function, the filename
and filetype parts of the outfileid specify which
files ARCUTIL should decode. The input file may
contain multiple encoded files concatenated one
after the other. You may use wild card symbols to
_________
be used in pattern matching. An asterisk matches
any string of characters; a percent matches any
single character; other characters match only
themselves. The filemode tells ARCUTIL where to
write the output files.
Encoding and Decoding Files 5
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options... specify processing options for the function. The
__________
more commonly used options include
XXENCODE tells ARCUTIL that the rules for
xxencoding are to be used.
UUENCODE tells ARCUTIL that the rules for
uuencoding are to be used. If neither
XXENCODE nor UUENCODE are included on
the command line, ARCUTIL assumes
UUENCODE.
MGUARD tells ARCUTIL that it should use an now-
obsolete variant of uuencoding. A guard
_____
character is added to the end of each
uuencoded line (typically the letter
"M"), and that the space character is
used instead of agrave accent. The
MGUARD is meaningful only in combination
with the ENCODE function and the
UUENCODE option.
JANET tells ARCUTIL that it should use a spe-
cial character sequence for uuencoding.
The character sequence used is believed
to be compatible with the network gate-
way between BITNET and JANET. The JANET
is meaningful only combination with the
ENCODE function and the UUENCODE option.
REPLACE tells ARCUTIL that a file extracted from
the archive may replace an existing CMS
file by the same name. If REPLACE is
not specified, ARCUTIL skips any member
that would conflict with an existing
file.
Encoding and Decoding Files 6
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SIMPLE FILE COPYING
SIMPLE FILE COPYING
SIMPLE FILE COPYING
SIMPLE FILE COPYING
___________________
The COPY function of ARCUTIL copies the input file to an
output file. This function is useful with specified with
the EBCDIC option to convert an ASCII file to printable
EBCDIC. It is also useful for converting a file with vari-
able length records into one where all the records have the
same length. The command to invoke the COPY function of
ARCUTIL has the following form.
ARCUTIL COPY infileid outfilid ( options...
where
infileid specifies which CMS file you want ARCUTIL to proc-
ess. You must provide the full filename,
filetype, and filemode for your input file.
outfileid specifies the full name for the CMS file ARCUTIL
should create.
options... specify processing options for the function. The
more commonly used options include
REPLACE specifies that the output files from
ARCUTIL may replace existing files by
the same name.
CCEBCDIC specifies that the output is to be
translated from ASCII to EBCDIC. Car-
riage returns, linefeeds, and formfeeds
are converted to ASA carriage control;
tabs are expanded to spaces.
EBCDIC specifies that the output is to be
translated from ASCII to EBCDIC. Car-
riage returns, linefeeds, and formfeeds
are treated as record breaks; tabs are
expanded to spaces.
Simple File Copying 7
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COMMAND SUMMARY
COMMAND SUMMARY
COMMAND SUMMARY
COMMAND SUMMARY
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The syntax for the ARCUTIL command is as follows.
ARCUTIL command infileid outfilid ( options...
The command parameter indicates which of ARCUTIL's functions
_______
is to be performed. It may be any of these commands.
UNARC process a .ARC or .ARK file.
UNLBR process a .LBR file.
UNZIP process a .ZIP file.
UNSQ process a squeezed (.?Q?) file.
UNCR process a crunched (.?Z?) file.
ENCODE encode a file.
DECODE decode a file.
COPY copy a file.
The infileid parameter parameter specifies the name of the
________
input file ARCUTIL should process. It should be the com-
plete CMS file identifier; that is, it should include the
filename, filetype, and the filemode.
For the ENCODE and COPY commands, the outfilid parameter
________
gives the complete CMS file identifier (filename, filetype,
and filemode) for the output file. For the other commands,
the filename and filetype fields specify which archive mem-
bers should be extracted. Asterisks and percents may be
used as "wild card" symbols: a percent matches any single
character, and the asterisk matches any character string.
The filemode field specifies where the output should be
written.
The command-line options specify any special processing.
_______
Here is a complete list of supported ARCUTIL options.
REplace If an output file would overwrite an existing
file of the same name, ARCUTIL normally skips
processing that output. Specifying REPLACE
tells ARCUTIL it may erase the existing file.
EBcdic Data in the output file is translated from
ASCII to EBCDIC. Carriage return, line feed,
and form feed characters are treated as end-
Command Summary 8
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of-line signals. Tab characters are expanded
to blanks.
CCEBcdic Data in the output file is translated from
ASCII to EBCDIC. Carriage return, line feed,
and form feed characters are converted to the
appropriate printer carriage control charac-
ters. Tab characters are expanded to blanks.
NL ARCUTIL is to interpret a line feed character
as a new line character (that is, as a car-
riage return, line feed sequence). The NL
option is meaningful only with the CCEBCDIC
option.
LIST ARCUTIL constructs the contents directory of
the input file, but it suppresses the gener-
ation of any output files.
Block nn This option specifies the size of the output
records generated by ARCUTIL. If omitted,
the program assumes 128 byte records for most
cases. If the CCEBCDIC option is specified,
then the default record length is set to 133
bytes.
LINEcoun nn This option specifies the number of lines per
output page. The LINECOUN option is
meaninful only in combination with the
CCEBCDIC option. ARCUTIL assumes 60 lines
per page if LINECOUN is not provided.
UUencode, XXencode These options indicate whether the
uuencoding or xxencoding rules are used. The
option may be used with the DECODE and ENCODE
functions of ARCUTIL. If not specified,
ARCUTIL assumes uuencoding.
MGuard This option enables the old-style form of
uuencoding in which the length character is
appended to each output line. (The length
character is usually the letter M.) This op-
tion is meaningful only with the UUENCODE op-
tion and the ENCODE function.
JANET This option enables a special character se-
quence for uuencoding believed to be compat-
ible with the JANET network mail gateway.
This option is meaningful only with the
UUENCODE option and the ENCODE function.
Command Summary 9