CompuServe Messages

Jeannine, Most files stored for tranfer via telecomm are ' compressed archives'. This keep all of the related files together and makes the transfer much faster and less expensive. To unpack these archives, you need the proper unpacking software. Archives with the file extension .LHA are compressed with LhARC and requires LHA138.RUN, which you will find (along with all of the other packing programs) in library 16 of AmigaUser. LHA138.RUN is a self-extracting-archive and does not require any other program to unpack. You'll need to COPY LHA to your C: directory… do this in the following manner: Let's say you download LHA138.RUN to a floppy in your DF0: so the full PATH to LHA138.RUN would be: DF0:LHA138.RUN First, we have to unpack the self extracting archive (LHA138.RUN), so, open a shell and type: CD DF0: this makes DF0: the current directory Now type: LHA138.RUN this executes the self extracting archive… you'll see the program extracting all of the included files to the current directory (DF0:) Now type: COPY LHA C: this will place LHA (the actual program) in your C: directory, which is always in the AmigaOS PATH, making all commands in C: available from anywhere on the system. You see, the operating system needs to know where it can always look for certain things like the COPY command, DIR command, startup-sequences, etc… so the C: and S: directories are ALWAYS part of the PATH. By putting commands and frequently used programs somewhere in the PATH, they do not need to be 'assigned' because the Amiga will always look in the current directory, then the PATH, and then the S: and C: directories for a command issued in a shell. Now you can use LhA from anywhere… so let's get something unpacked: type: CD WORK:<dirname> (or whatever the path is to the directory where you have <filename>.LHA) then: LhA -x x <filename>.LHA you'll see LhA extract all of the files