#Dealing with .ZIP files
21 messages in this thread
Help!
I just downloaded some c source from the Science/Math forum, and it is a
.ZIP file…. and I can't seem to locate an un-zip utility here or in
Amigatech. There MUST be such an animal, no? I tried to get Whap! to find
something by specifying "zip" as a keyword, and setting the Days-old value
to 0, but got "no files found" — tried disk utilities, general utilities,
comunications, and a couple of others… Thanks in advance.
… a message Whap!'ed from scenic Boring, Oregon by
Jeff P.
The file you need is UNZIP.LZH in Lib 16(archivers/crunchers).
Edward
– via Whap!
Look in Library 16 of AmigaUser. I found several, including:
PKAZIP.LZH 16 67K 01-23-90 PKAZIP Version 1.01 – archiving utility
UNZIP.LZH 16 61K 01-13-91 Unix Version of Unzip
Of these, PKAZIP is a point and click program; UNZIP is a CLI-type. I
prefer UNZIP, since I can follow the same pattern of making and cd-ing to
the directory where I want the files, and then just type UNZIP
path:filename.
Betty
Jeff,
Others have helped you regarding ZIP — I'm curious as to the C source you
downloaded from SCIENCE. What's it for? What's the filename? I'm an
amateur C programmer and quasi-professional ecologist, and I'd like to
combine the two.
–Gord
PKAZip, the Amiga ZIP tool!
—————————
Jeff,
Look for PKAZIP.LZH in AmigaUser Library 16 Archivers/Crunchers.
"PKAZip provides the Amiga user with a fully-Intuitionized tool written
specifically for the Amiga. PKAZip provides COMPLETE support for the
Amiga's file system while retaining compatibility with PKWare's PKZIP and
PKUNZIP tools. PKAZip provides functions to create, examine, extract, test,
modify, display and print files which are in the ZIP compressed format.
PKAZip provides additional functions which support ZIP creation and
extraction. It provides full support for recursive copy and delete to
allow you to copy or delete any or all files in one or more directories and
subdirectories. PKAZip will create directories as needed to support the
copy operation and ZIP file creation…" excerpt from PKAZip Readme file.
Chris
Chris,
Thanks for the info.
… a message Whap!'ed from scenic Boring, Oregon by
Jeff P.
Chris and Jeff,
It's my understanding that PKAZIP is BROKEN (i.e., won't run at all)
on A3000s, and is seriously crash-prone on any Amiga running 2.04. (Heck,
it was buggy on a 2000 running 1.3.2.) There are some Zip/UnZip utilities
around that are in better shape. Also, be aware that PKAZIP doesn't
understand the latest version of .zip files. Moreover, PKWare has no
intention of supporting the Amiga any more. Granted, the Intuition
interface is pretty, and easy to use (though too busy for my taste).
However, I'd rather have a cli-based program that worked, than a WIMP
(Windows, Icons, Mouse, Pointer) program that doesn't.
–dds (dales@teksce.SCE.TEK.COM)
Whappeta-whappeta-Whap!
Dale, More often than not PKAZIP will lockup a 3000 while it's
decompressing a file. I use a small CLI variant (I don't know what it was
originally called, I renamed it to unzip) that works pretty well except
when handling embedded directory structures.
-sja
Steve,
My understanding is that PKAZIP hangs when run on a 68030, since I've
seen complaints from people with accellerated A2000s, as well as A3000s.
There are at least two different non-PKWare Zip packages out for the
Amiga. I picked one off Usenet not too long ago. I haven't done anything
with it yet, since I don't use Zip for myself, and the boards I frequent
don't use it much either. That one is written in C, I think (it's
supposed to be portable to Unix systems), the other one that I've heard of
is written in asm, and doesn't like 68030s. (Hmm… Seems to be a popular
disease…)
–dds (dales@teksce.SCE.TEK.COM)
Whappeta-whappeta-Whap!
Dale,
I haven't had any problems using PKAzip and I've just recently
downloaded some huge .zip files in DTPforum. One over 660K! It unpacked
them just fine. What I like is the ease with which you can click on any
zip file view its contents and read the text files without unpacking them.
Then systematically select which file you want unpacked. It works for me
and when it breaks, I'll go back to the CLI based utils. But until then…
Chris
Chris:
You're the first Amigan I've heard praise PKAzip; it's about time. If
everyone wasn't so hot on LZH on the Amiga, I'd use it religiously. An
amazingly bullet-proof program and only 2 releases!
Gary
– Mirror Image Prod. (416) 495-7469, via WHAP!
PKAZIP is anything but "bullet-proof". My opinion is that it's a piece of
junk. It's also no longer supported.
-sja
PKazip was developed by Dennis Hoffman, who (with his wife) runs the Safe
Harbor mail order place. He once worked with Phil Katz in Milwaukee, so
when the demand grew for an Amiga version, he got permission to make one.
There was some kind of dispute between them later on, and now it's
unsupported, and I doubt Dennis would ever improve it. I've had no trouble
with it, really. What symptoms of problems do you see? I wish there was a
user interface to LZH. Is there?
John, The main problem with it is that on the 3000 it will crash the
machine while decompressing — and of course invalidates the hard disk if
it was writing at the time. I don't know of a specific graphical interface
for LHARC, however many of the DirUtils support such an interface. I
prefer CLI usage, but that has nothing to do with my dislike of PKAZIP —
that has to do with frequent HD validations and _still_ not getting the
file to fully decompress.
John,
Try Lharca if you want an lzh with a user interface.
Bruce H.
-Via Whap!
Of course, it will freak out is you use a .LZH file compressed with LZ 1.8
and above…. Some IBM boards use LHA to compress message packets to be
read offline, and if you use LHArcA to decompress the files, watch LHArcA
go off into oblivion…..
brian
Chris,
Here's a quick test for you. If you have a printer, disconnect it.
Now, start up PKAZIP, and click on the PRINT gadget. Watch PKAZIP change
the mouse pointer to the "ZZZ" cloud. Wait for the printer dwarf to pop up
its little requester. Click on CANCEL. Watch PKAZIP stay busy. Repeat as
necessary until tired of it. Reboot computer. 🙁 That was my first
experience with PKAZIP. I'd hit the gadget by accident, and I didn't have a
printer at the time. There was no way to get PKAZIP to stop the print
process, or abort altogether, short of rebooting. I was *not* pleased.
–dds (dales@teksce.SCE.TEK.COM)
Whappeta-whappeta-Whap!
Dale,
I've never tried the print feature in PKAZIP. I do have a printer,
but found having piles of .doc files printed a waste of paper. I prefer to
read on-screen the docs and follow along with the program up and running.
If the print feature is buggy don't use it. It does for me unzip and zip
OK, until it won't work, I'll probably use it. I have no problem with CLI
usage. I never had the LOADWB command in my s/startupsequence until I
switched to WB2.04 and I'm thinking of making IT optional again!
chris
Chris,
Like I said, I hit the print gadget by accident. I had to reboot the
computer to shut the #!&^ program off. As soon as I get Portable ZIP
running, PKAZIP is going to NIL:.
As for the WB interface to PKAZIP, I consider it a nuisance. I'd
rather have a CLI interface for that type of program anyway. Actually, the
best thing would be both: A CLI-driven main program, and an Intuition
front end that is separately callable. That way folks who like the WB can
use it. I use both, a great deal. I often wind up with several shells and
workbench operations running all at the same time. Makes things
interesting, I've gotta admit! 🙂 I think that's one of the Amiga's
great strengths, really, that it gives the user his or her choice of
interfaces, not one or the other.
–dds (dales@teksce.SCE.TEK.COM)
Whappeta-whappeta-Whap!
Dale:
> It's my understanding that PKAZIP is BROKEN (i.e., won't run at all) > on
A3000s, and is seriously crash-prone on any Amiga running 2.04.
PKAZIP does work if you run NOFASTMEM under WB2.04 and/or an A3000
Regards Charles
Charles,
In my book, any software that requires the use of NoFastMem is
broken. The ONLY reason I've kept it around is to unzip the occasional
.zip archive I get off of the boards. Since I just picked up a CLI version
of Zip, the PK version is going to be erased Real Soon Now…
–dds (dales@teksce.SCE.TEK.COM)
Whappeta-whappeta-Whap!