This is the README file for the 3 November 1997 public release of the Info-ZIP group's portable UnZip zipfile-extraction program (and related utilities). unzip532.zip portable UnZip, version 5.32, source code distribution unzip532.tar.Z same as above, but compress'd tar format unzip532.tar.gz same as above, but gzip'd tar format __________________________________________________________________________ BEFORE YOU ASK: UnZip, its companion utility Zip, and related utilities and support files can be found in many places; read the file "WHERE" for further details. To contact the authors with suggestions, bug reports, or fixes, continue reading this file (README) and, if this is part of a source distribution, the file "ZipPorts" in the proginfo directory. Also in source distributions: read "BUGS" for a list of known bugs, non-bugs and possible future bugs; INSTALL for instructions on how to build UnZip; and "Contents" for a commented listing of all the distributed files. __________________________________________________________________________ GENERAL INFO ------------ UnZip is an extraction utility for archives compressed in .zip format (also called "zipfiles"). Although highly compatible both with PKWARE's PKZIP and PKUNZIP utilities for MS-DOS and with Info-ZIP's own Zip program, our primary objectives have been portability and non-MSDOS functionality. This version of UnZip has been ported to a stupendous array of hardware-- from micros to supercomputers--and operating systems: Unix (many flavors), VMS, OS/2 (including DLL version), Windows NT and Windows 95 (including DLL version), Windows CE (GUI version), Windows 3.x (including DLL version), MS-DOS, AmigaDOS, Atari TOS, Acorn RISC OS, BeOS, Macintosh (GUI version), SMS/QDOS, MVS, VM/CMS, FlexOS, Tandem NSK, Human68k (mostly), AOS/VS (partly) and TOPS-20 (partly). UnZip features not found in PKUNZIP include source code; default extraction of directory trees (with a switch to defeat this, rather than the reverse); system-specific extended file attributes; and, of course, the ability to run under most of your favorite operating systems. Plus, it's free. :-) For source distributions, see the main Contents file for a list of what's included, and read INSTALL for instructions on compiling (including OS- specific comments). The individual operating systems' Contents files (for example, vms/Contents) may list important compilation info in addition to explaining what files are what, so be sure to read them. Some of the ports have their own, special README files, so be sure to look for those, too. See unzip.1 or unzip.doc for usage (or the corresponding UnZipSFX, ZipInfo, fUnZip and ZipGrep docs). For VMS, unzip_def.rnh or unzip_cli.help may be compiled into unzip.hlp and installed as a normal VMS help entry; see vms/descrip.mms. CHANGES AND NEW FEATURES ------------------------ The 5.32 release adds two new ports and a fix for at least one relatively serious bug: - new FlexOS port - new Tandem NSK port - new Visual BASIC support (compatibility with the Windows DLLs) - new -T option (set zipfile timestamp) for virtually all ports - fix for timestamps beyond 2038 (e.g., 2097; crashed under DOS/Win95/NT) - fix for undetected "dangling" symbolic links (i.e., no pointee) - fix for VMS indexed-file extraction problem (stored with Zip 2.0 or 2.1) - further performance optimizations The 5.31 release included nothing but small bug-fixes and typo corrections, with the exception of some minor performance tweaks. The 5.3 release added still more ports and more cross-platform portability features: - new BeOS port - new SMS/QDOS port - new Windows CE graphical port - VM/CMS port fully updated and tested - MVS port fully updated and tested - updated Windows DLL port, with WiZ GUI spun off to a separate package - full Universal Time (UTC or GMT) support for trans-timezone consistency - cross-platform support for 8-bit characters (ISO Latin-1, OEM code pages) - support for NT security descriptors (ACLs) - support for overwriting OS/2 directory EAs if -o option given - updated Solaris/SVR4 package facility What is (still!) not added is multi-part archive support (a.k.a. "diskette spanning") and a unified and more powerful DLL interface. These are the two highest priorities for the 6.x releases. Work on the former is almost certain to have commenced by the time you read this. This time we mean it! You betcha. :-) Although the DLLs are still basically a mess, the Windows DLLs (16- and 32- bit) now have some documentation and a small example application. Note that they should now be compatible with C/C++, Visual BASIC and Delphi. Weirder languages (FoxBase, etc.) are probably Right Out. Finally, note that support for unshrinking has now been turned OFF by default, although the source code is still available (as with unreducing). This was done for legal reasons, not technical ones, and no, we're not any happier about it than you are. :-( See the COPYING file for details. INTERNET RESOURCES ------------------ Info-ZIP's web site is at http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/ and contains the most up-to-date information about coming releases, links to binaries, and common problems. (See http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/FAQ.html for the latter.) Files may also be retrieved via ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/ . Thanks to Walnut Creek CD-ROM for hosting our primary site. DISTRIBUTION ------------ If you have a question regarding redistribution of Info-ZIP software, either as is, as packaging for a commercial product, or as an integral part of a commercial product, please read the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section of the included COPYING file. Insofar as C compilers are rare on some platforms and the authors only have direct access to a subset of the supported systems, others may wish to pro- vide ready-to-run executables for new systems. In general there is no prob- lem with this; we require only that such distributions include this README file, the WHERE file, the COPYING file (contains copyright/redistribution information), and the appropriate documentation files (unzip.doc and/or unzip.1 for UnZip, etc.). If the local system provides a way to make self- extracting archives in which both the executables and text files can be stored together, that's best (in particular, use UnZipSFX if at all possible, even if it's a few kilobytes bigger than the alternatives); otherwise we suggest a bare UnZip executable and a separate zipfile containing the re- maining text and binary files. If another archiving method is in common use on the target system (for example, Zoo or LHa), that may also be used. BUGS AND NEW PORTS: CONTACTING INFO-ZIP ---------------------------------------- All bug reports and patches (context diffs only, please!) should go to Zip-Bugs@lists.wku.edu, which is the e-mail address for the Info-ZIP authors. (Note that a few rare systems require the Zip-Bugs part to be capitalized as shown; most systems work OK with lowercase "zip-bugs," however.) DO NOT MAIL US LARGE BINARIES--EVER. If you need to send us a problem archive that happens to be large (> 20K), contact us first for instructions. "Dumb questions" that aren't adequately answered in the documentation should also be directed to Zip-Bugs rather than to a global forum such as Usenet. (Kindly make certain that your question *isn't* answered by the documentation, however--a great deal of effort has gone into making it clear and complete.) Suggestions for new features can be discussed on Info-ZIP@lists.wku.edu, a mailing list for Info-ZIP beta testers and interested parties; you need to subscribe first, however (see below). We make no promises to act on all suggestions or even all patches, but if it is something that is manifestly useful, sending the required patches to Zip-Bugs directly (as per the instructions in the ZipPorts file) is likely to produce a quicker response than asking us to do it--the authors are always ridiculously short on time. (Please do NOT send patches or encoded zipfiles to the Info-ZIP list. Please DO read the ZipPorts file before sending any large patch. It would be difficult to over-emphasize this point...) If you are considering a port, not only should you read the ZipPorts file, but also please check in with Zip-Bugs BEFORE getting started, since the code is constantly being updated behind the scenes. (For example, VxWorks, VMOS and Netware ports were once claimed to be under construction, although we have yet to see any up-to-date patches.) We will arrange to send you the latest sources. The alternative is the possibility that your hard work will be tucked away in a subdirectory and mostly ignored, or completely ignored if someone else has already done the port (and you'd be surprised how often this has happened). BETA TESTING: JOINING INFO-ZIP ------------------------------- If you'd like to keep up to date with our UnZip (and companion Zip utility) development, join the ranks of beta testers, add your own thoughts and con- tributions, or simply lurk, send a two-line mail message containing the commands HELP and LIST (on separate lines in the body of the message, not on the subject line) to mxserver@lists.wku.edu. You'll receive two messages listing the various Info-ZIP mailing-list formats that are available (and also various unrelated lists) and instructions on how to subscribe to one or more of them (courtesy of Hunter Goatley). As of 1997, subscribing to the announcements list required a command of the form SUBSCRIBE Info-ZIP-announce "Joe Isuzu" The discussion list is called Info-ZIP; it can be set for either normal or digest-style delivery. -- Greg Roelofs (sometimes known as Cave Newt), principal UnZip developer guy, with inspiration from David Kirschbaum
IMPORTANT NOTE: Source directories for acorn, amiga, aosvs, atari, beos, cmsmvs, flexos, mac, msdos, novell, os2, qdos, tandem, tops20, vms, wince, windll, and win32 compatibility have been excluded from this distribution of unzip; only the Unix portion is provided. The full unzip source code may be obtained from the sites listed in the Where document. Denise Howard (current maintainer) deniseh@idiom.com Tsutomu Eguchi (3.4 modifier) Tsutomu_Eguchi@ns.saga-med.ac.jp
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Netfuture.ch.
