SHAR

Section: Wang Institute (1)
Updated: June 3, 1985
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NAME

shar - create file storage archive for extraction by /bin/sh

SYNOPSIS

shar [-abcsv] [-d delim] [-p prefix] files

DESCRIPTION

shar prints its input files with special command lines around them to be used by the shell /bin/sh to extract them later. The output can be filtered through the shell to recreate copies of the original files.

shar allows directories to be named, and shar prints the necessary commands (mkdir & cd) to create new directories and fill them. shar will produce commands to make executable plain files executable. shar will not allow existing files to be over-written; such files must be removed by the file extractor.

OPTIONS

a: All the options. The options: -v -c -b -p <tab>X are implied.
b: Extract files into basenames so that files with absolute path names are put into the current directory. This option has strange effects when directories are archived.
c: Check file size on extraction by counting characters. An error message is reported if the sizes don't match. One reason why the sizes may not match is that shar will append a newline to complete incomplete last lines; shar prints a message that mentions added newlines. Another reason why the sizes may not match is that some network mail programs remove non-whitespace control characters. On extraction, shar prints a message that mentions control characters.
s: Silent running. All checking and extra output is inhibited.
v: Print verbose feedback messages about what shar is doing. Sizes of plain files are echoed to allow a simple validity check.
d delim: Use this as the ``end of file'' delimiter instead of the default. The only reason to change it is if you suspect an file contains the default delimiter: SHAR_EOF.
p prefix: Use this as the prefix to each line of the archived files. This is to make sure that special characters at the start of lines are not eaten up by programs like mailers. If this option is used, the files will be extracted with the stream editor sed rather than cat so it is more efficient and portable to avoid setting the prefix, though perhaps less safe if you don't know what is in the files.

AUTHOR

Gary Perlman (based on a shell version by James Gosling, with additions motivated by Derek Zahn, Michael Thompson, H. Morrow Long, Fred Avolio, Gran Uddeborg, & Chuck Wegrzyn).

LIMITATIONS

shar does not know anything about links between files or binary files.

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