home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- This is the README file for the 7 February 1994 public release of the
- Info-ZIP group's portable UnZip zipfile-extraction program (and related
- utilities).
-
- unzip51.zip portable UnZip, version 5.1, source code distribution
- unzip51.zoo same as above, but ZOO format
- unzip51.tar.Z same as above, but compress'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 "ZipRules". Also in source distributions:
- read "BUGS" for a list of known bugs, non-bugs and possible future bugs,
- and see "Contents" for a commented listing of all the distributed files.
-
- ALSO NOTE: Info-ZIP's mailing addresses have CHANGED AGAIN (since UnZip
- 5.0p1 and Zip 2.0.1)! See below.
- __________________________________________________________________________
-
-
- GENERAL INFO
- ------------
- UnZip is an extraction utility for archives compressed in .zip format (also
- called "zipfiles"). Although highly compatible with PKWARE's PKZIP and
- PKUNZIP utilities for MS-DOS (in addition to 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 wide array of hardware--from
- micros to supercomputers--and operating systems: Unix (many flavors),
- VMS, OS/2, MSDOS (+ Windows), NT, TOPS-20 (partly), AmigaDOS, Atari TOS,
- Macintosh and Human68k. UnZip features not found in PKUNZIP include source
- code; default extraction of directory trees (with a switch to defeat this,
- rather than the reverse); VMS, Macintosh and OS/2 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 ZipInfo and fUnZip
- docs). For VMS, unzip.rnh may be compiled into unzip.hlp and installed as
- a normal VMS help entry.
-
-
- NEW FEATURES
- ------------
- New features in this version include the ability to extract to a directory
- other than the current one; the inclusion of ZipInfo as an integral part
- of UnZip; wildcard zipfiles; full Amiga, Atari, Mac, NT and Human68K support
- (and partial TOPS-20 support); and funzip ports to most systems. UnZip it-
- self still does not have the capability to extract zipfiles read from stdin,
- nor to extract multi-part archives. Both of these features are planned for
- the next version.
-
-
- 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, 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 Unix, VMS, OS/2, MS-DOS, Mac, Amiga and Atari
- systems, others may wish to provide ready-to-run executables. There is
- no problem 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 may be stored together, that is best; otherwise we suggest a
- bare UnZip executable and a separate zipfile containing the remaining
- 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@wkuvx1.wku.edu, which is the e-mail address for the Info-ZIP au-
- thors. Suggestions for new features can be sent to info-zip@wkuvx1.wku.edu,
- a mailing list for the Info-ZIP beta testers, for discussion (the authors
- hang out here as well, of course), although we don't promise to act on
- all suggestions. If it is something which is manifestly useful, sending
- the required patches to zip-bugs directly is likely to produce a quicker
- response than asking us to do it--the authors are always somewhat short
- on time. (Please do NOT send patches to the info-zip address.) If you
- are considering a port, however, please check in with the authors FIRST,
- since the code is constantly being updated behind the scenes (witness
- the new Amiga and Atari ports in this version; VMOS, Acorn/ARM, VM/CMS,
- Netware and QDOS ports are claimed to be under construction, although we
- have yet to see any up-to-date patches). We'll arrange to send you the
- latest sources. The alternative is the possibility that your hard work
- will be tucked away in a sub-archive and pretty much ignored, or ignored
- altogether 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, etc., 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@wkuvx1.wku.edu. You'll receive two messages listing the
- various Info-ZIP mailing-list formats which are available (and also various
- unrelated lists) and instructions on how to subscribe to one or more of them
- (courtesy of Hunter Goatley).
-
-
- Greg Roelofs (Cave Newt), UnZip maintainer/container/explainer and
- developer guy, with inspiration from David Kirschbaum
-