New Russian Arj for OS/2 Released (V. 2.72 Beta)
Photo above shows the new ARJ Beta version 2.72 being installed on @Macarlo's Warp 4.5+FP14 OS/2 Client In
Affiliation =@MACARLO MICROSOFT= =@MACARLO YAHOO= =@MACARLO WEBALIAS= =@MACARLO ALTAVISTA= |
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Test
by @Macarlo
Team OS/2 Registered
Registered user of 212 OS/2 shareware
Screenshots by registered
Embellish
Hi
All.
I just tested here on my OS/2 Client Warp 4.5 + FixPak 14 the new Russian ARJ,
version 2.72, released today August 18, 2000. ARJ is a fine piece of software
that I recommend to all OS/2 users. Note that the Russian developers devoted
to OS/2 cause are working everyday in order to improve several important applications
for Warp platform. One of these applications is just ARJ, that I'm using since
the first release on OS/2. This new release I tested it on my Warp 4.5 FP14
and it is running just fine. The file is arj2_272.exe (245,3K) uploaded to Hobbes, where you can get it (I sucked it from /pub/incoming).
READ ALSO
Russian Developers Releases ARJ/2 for The Year 2000
Photo above shows ARJ options displayed on @Macarlo's Warp 4.5 FP14 OS/2 prompt
As the OS/2 lacks a multifunctional compression
utility, a version
of ARJ for OS/2 has been developed
by ARJ Software Russia. The
aim of the porting was
to retain the functionality and
compatibility with ARJ for DOS ("ARJ/DOS"
from this point onward)
but several exceptions occur.
They are covered later in this
document.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
* OS/2
version 1.2 or higher, or Windows NT v 3.10 or higher.
For OS/2 systems:
* A 80286 or higher CPU.
* 512K of memory is needed for operation.
For Windows NT systems:
* 1024K of memory is needed for operation.
DIFFERENCES WITH THE DOS AND WINDOWS NT VERSIONS OF ARJ
("-"
indicates a missing feature, "*" - a different operation and
"+" stands for a feature
unique to ARJ/2)
- There
may be a significant performance drawback (compared to
ARJ/DOS and versions of
ARJ/2 prior to 2.62.08) when accessing
files on volumes with
no write-back cache.
* External
garble modules are provided as OS/2 DLLs. You may not
use DOS modules
with ARJ/2, or vice versa. The encryption
algorithm is the
same, so ARJ/2 garbled archives can be
processed under DOS.
* ARJ/2
sets the "Host OS" to "OS/2" on
its archives. When
extracting any such
archive with ARJ for DOS, some unusual
behavior may occur.
Versions of ARJ prior to 2.50 convert
high-ASCII characters
in filenames to 7-bit characters by
ignoring the high
bit. So, the filename "±TEST±" will
be
converted to "1TEST1"
on extraction.
ARJ/DOS
also strips high bit from archive comments, but only
if the archive was
created by ARJ/2. Archives created with
ARJ/DOS and then
processed under OS/2 are not affected.
Beginning
with version 2.72, ARJ/DOS considers the ARJSFXJR
archives created under
OS/2 to be hostile to the DOS version
of ARJSFXJR and therefore
cannot modify them. In such cases,
it's advised to use the
"-2d" switch under OS/2.
* ARJ/2
uses the default OS/2 error handler that will normally
display pop-up menus
prompting for action. The -& option
installs batch error and
exception handler (new feature since
ARJ/2 v 2.62.08). Remember
that the ampersand character is
used in OS/2 to
start two processes consequently, so this
switch will actually split
the command line. Type -^& instead
of -& to install the
error handler.
* ARJSFX
and ARJSFXJR archives will display ANSI sequences if
the ANSI support is enabled
in the current OS/2 session (it's
enabled by default in
OS/2).
* By
default, ARJ/2 stores extended attributes among with files.
To disable EA
storage and thus revert to the traditional
header format, use the
"-2e" option. See a special dedicated
section below for details
on EA handling.
* The
"-hm" options are compatible with their DOS implementation
hence a temporary
swap file is created if the file list
exceeds 3000 files. To
keep the entire list in memory, use
-hm65000.
+ The
"-ha" has been improved. Now, when used in conjuction with
an archiving command,
it does not mark read-only files as such
in archive. This simplifies
archiving from CD-ROM media where
virtualized read-only
attribute is forced by respective IFS
driver.
+ The
"-h#" option has been improved to allow custom date/time
formats. A custom
format is specified by putting a format
sequence right after
the "-h#". The following characters
represent date/time macros:
Y
= year, M = month, D
= day
h = hour, m
= minute, s = second
N = day of year
(note that these are case-sensitive)
All
other characters, as well as those going beyond format
limits (4 digits for year,
2 digits for all other fields), are
treated as delimiters.
Examples:
ARJ
a project- -h#YYYYMMDD (project-19991022.arj)
ARJ a backup- -h#MM-DD_hh-mm-ss
(backup-10-22_23-57-16.arj)
ARJ a specs -h#YY (specs99.arj)
ARJ a logs_ -h#NNN (logs_295.arj)
ARJ a test -h#YYYYYYYY
(testYYYY1999.arj)
+ The
new "-2d" option will force the stamping of "MS-DOS"
as
host operating system
for the archives created by ARJ/2. It
may be used for
compatibility, to avoid "binary file from
another OS" warnings.
"-2d1" will force only the main header
to be stamped as
MS-DOS one, so archive comments will not be
discarded by DOS version.
+ "-2k"
option forces 2-digit display of year in lists. This can
be helpful if the 3-digit
year format used for dates beyond
2100 is confusing.
Alternatively,
"-2k1" uses a non-ambigous format that is both
easy to read and information-packed.
The dates are represented
by two digits if the year
is 1970 to 2069, and in three digits
if it's 2070 or beyond.
+ "-2p<n>"
can be used to set the priority of
ARJ/2. The
knowledge of OS/2
scheduling system is required to use this
option. It can dramatically
increase performance but slow down
other processes. The <n>
can be equal to 1, 2, 3 or 4:
1
= idle-time priority
2 = regular priority
3 = time-critical
priority
4 = fixed-high priority
Priority
delta values are not supported. We don't
see a
strong requirement for
them.
+ The
"-2a" option is implemented in ARJ/2 due to
a popular
demand from FidoNet
system operators. Basically it acts like
"-jo", with
the exception that file names, and not the
extensions, are "serialized".
Consider having a file called
"FILE995N.TXT"
and an archive that contains the same file. If
extracted with the
"-2a" option, the file will be written
to "FILE9950.TXT",
if you extract it again, it'll be called
"FILE9951.TXT",
and so on up to "FILE9959.TXT",
then
"FILE9960.TXT".
And after "FILE9999.TXT" ARJ/2 will start with
"FIL00000.TXT".
This option allows you to extract one file to
100000000 unique names.
It's essential to system operators
since multiple mail packets
with the same name may come from
different systems.
NOTES:
1. It'll be
wise to include this option in the script that
unpacks
the ARCmail packets and NOT in ARJ_SW environment
variable.
This option is a security measure for systems
running
in unattended mode, and will only confuse you if
enabled
by default.
2. There's
a security hole: a file called "9999.XXX" or so,
will
not be overwritten. However, all subsequent writes
will
be redirected into file "0000.XXX". So, files with
9s
in the beginning have less chances of being preserved.
Hopefully
such situation is unlikely for FidoNet systems.
3. There is
another option, "-jo1", to serialize filenames,
however
its operation is different. The volume must
support
long filenames in order to use this option,
moreover,
it's not suitable for dealing with FidoNet
ARCmail.
+ ARJSFXJR
does not support long filenames under Win95 DOS.
ARJSFXJR in ARJ/2 supports
OS/2 long filenames.
+ With
no ARJ_SW specified, ARJ/2 looks for a file named ARJ.CFG
in its home directory.
If found, this file will be parsed and
used as a standard
ARJ configuration file (see manual for
details).
EXTENDED ATTRIBUTES HANDLING
Beginning
with version 2.62.10, ARJ/2 can back up and restore
extended attributes (also referenced as
EAs) without needing any
external utilities. This is achieved by
compressing and storing
EAs as a part of file header.
Restrictions on EA support:
* The
multivolume restart feature (-jn) will not work if EAs are
enabled. You'll have
to disable EAs with -2d prior to using
-jn, or to recreate the
archive if the EAs are precious.
* Hollow mode archives do not support EAs.
A set of
new options has been introduced to let the user control
EA handling:
* "-2c"
restricts EA handling to critical EAs only. Archived
non-critical EAs
will not be restored. When an archive is
created, only critical
EAs will be saved.
* "-2e"
specifies EA inclusion filter. With no parameters given,
it disables EA handling
at all. Otherwise, an expression that
follows it is
interpreted as a wildcard that limits EA
inclusion to a particular
EAs. Multiple options can be entered
to represent a set of
EA names but list files are not allowed.
Examples:
ARJ a test
In this example, all EAs will be preserved.
ARJ
a no_eas -2e
ARJ x no_eas -2e
EAs will neither be packed nor restored.
ARJ a documents -2e.LONGNAME
In this case, only .LONGNAME EAs will be handled.
ARJ a test -2e.CLASSINFO -2e.ICON*
.CLASSINFO
and .ICON* (i.e. .ICON, .ICON1, .ICONPOS) EAs will
be packed and restored.
It's
wise to specify "-2e.*" when backing up your OS/2 desktop
or configuration
files. The system EAs start with dot (".")
while application EAs
start with application name.
* "-2l"
allows to convert .LONGNAME extended attributes (these
represent icon titles
used in WPS) to file names, when
possible. This feature
simplifies moving document files away
from an OS/2 system installed
on a FAT volume.
If
the icon title (and so the extended attribute) contains
line breaks, wildcard
characters or other symbols, real
filename will be used
instead and the .LONGNAME EA will be
preserved.
This
option is ignored during extraction. "-2e" and "-2x" have
no effect on this
option (but .LONGNAME EAs are not saved if
.LONGNAME EA handling
is implicitly or explicitly disabled).
* "-2x"
specifies an exclusion filter. It must be followed by an
exclusion EA name specification.
The rules are the same as
with "-2e".
Also, the two options may work together, providing
both an inclusion and
an exclusion rule. For example:
ARJ a backup_ -r -p1 -h#2 -2e.* -2x.FED* c:\projects
may
be used to create regular back-ups of your work directory,
including all system EAs
but excluding EAs created with FED
(Fast Editor Lite, an
editor written by Sergey I. Yevtushenko,
evsi@naverex.kiev.ua)
- that program does not follow
traditional EA naming
conventions and uses system-alike EAs
for anchor position marks.
Extended
attributes are also supported in ARJSFXV self-extractors
where they are stored using the same technology
as with usual ARJ
archives.
The presence
of EAs is indicated by a "(EA: ...)" message when a
file is packed. Note that this size may
differ from the one given
when the file is unpacked - the former is
the EA structure size
and the latter is the space allocated for
EA storage. The number
of EAs and the size of EA structure is
also displayed when the
archive is listed with "ARJ v"
command.
KNOWN PROBLEMS
* On
FAT volumes under Windows NT, both long filenames and short
filenames may be used
to specify a filename. If you refer to a
file with its short
name (e.g. "ARJ a lntest LONGFI~1.TXT"),
the short filename will
be stored as entered from console. So,
no LFN equivalent is placed
into the archive, and if a file
with a similar long
filename exists in the archive, it will
not be replaced.
* REARJ/2
may behave incorrectly if the command interpreter
(specified with
COMSPEC= environment variable) is not
compatible with CMD.EXE.
It's also unwise to rename REARJ.EXE
since it calls
itself recursively when converting archives
within archives (/a).
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: Third-party
applications fail to handle ARJ/2 archives!
A: Try to disable extended attributes
(-2e) and HPFS DTA/DTC
storage (-j$). Many applications
are incapable of handling new
archive format (although
this format is fully compliant with
documented guidelines).
Known examples of such applications
include File Commander
v 2.11, Norton Commander v 5.00 and
WinRAR v 2.60.
Q: Extended
attribute sizes reported by InfoZIP and ARJ/2 are
different. What's the
cause?
A: As we have stated earlier,
ARJ/2 reports the size of its
internal EA storage
structure as EA size when packing files.
This may mismatch with
space allocated for EAs by the system,
and it may also
mismatch with values reported by other OS/2
native archivers.
Q: How can
I back up my Workplace Shell folders, preserving the
icons?
A: Since folders are represented with directories,
you'll have to
enable directory storage
with -a1 or -hbfd.
Q: Why ARJ/2
is a 16-bit executable?
A: There are several reasons for it. First,
the Huffman encoding
and decoding routines
are optimized by introducing assembler
code. That's why
ARJ 2.x is many times faster than ARJ 1.x,
and ARJ32 is quite slow
compared to ARJ/2. Second, OS/2 16-bit
binaries do NOT run
in VDMs and are actually as fast and
reliable as 32-bit ones.
So-called 16->32 thunks are called
when OS/2 API is accessed
but it rarely happens: ARJ/2 does
Huffman encoding/decoding
most of the time, not involving any
kind of external API.
An "ARJ32 for OS/2" version was planned
but we decided to stay
with 16-bit code, adding ARJ32-specific
features.
Q: What
is ARJLX?
A: It's the same program
as ARJ/2, compressed with LXLITE
utility. It requires OS/2
v 3.0 or higher to run. You may
encounter some compatibility
problems with it (it's unable to
register ARJLX with REGISTER.EXE,
and so on...)
Q: The EAs
have vanished after I used ARJ/DOS to update an
archive.
A: Current versions of ARJ/DOS and
ARJ32, as well as ARJ/2 prior
to 2.62.10, strip
the extended headers when any kind of
archive update occurs.
Q: I want
to create single-volume self-extracting archive that
supports EAs but ARJ/2
uses ARJSFX instead of ARJSFXV.
A: You need to force use of ARJSFXV/2.
The best way for it is to
specify an arbitrary large
value for volume size, e.g. -va.
Q: How can
I create an installer for my OS/2 product with ARJ?
A: ARJSFX/2 is able to run OS/2 commands
after unpacking archive.
Try this: create a script
you want to to be invoked after the
installation completes.
e.g.,
INSTALL2.CMD:
=======
/* REXX */
if
RxFuncQuery('SysLoadFuncs') then do
call RxFuncAdd
'SysLoadFuncs', 'RexxUtil', 'SysLoadFuncs'
call SysLoadFuncs
end
say
"Installation has completed, creating desktop object..."
call SysCreateObject
....
========
and so on...
Now
create an archive comment with the first line as follows:
)) \InstallDir\ -b -x
-y -!INSTALL2.CMD
Call it, for example, CMT.ANS. Now create an ARJSFX archive:
ARJ a PACKAGE.EXE -je -r -a -jm -zCMT.ANS -xCMT.ANS
You'll
make a self-extracting archive with an automatically
invoked installation program.
You may not commercially distribute these packages.
Q: How can
I distinguish ARJ/2 archives from ARJ or ARJZ ones?
A: Use the ARJ V command. The "Host
OS" field contains the type
of archiver binding (DOS
or OS/2). The "Revision" field may be
used to determine the
archiver version that added the file:
1
= ARJ versions earlier than 0.14,
ARJZ
compatibility mode (-md is less than 26624)
2
= ARJ v 0.14...0.20
3
= ARJ v 1.00...2.22
4
= ARJ v 2.30, X1
5
= ARJ v 2.39a, 2.39b
6
= ARJ v 2.39c...2.41
7
= ARJ v 2.42a...2.50a
8
= ARJ v 2.55...2.61, ARJ/2 v 2.61
9
= ARJ v 2.62, ARJ/2 v 2.62, ARJ32 v 3.00
10
= ARJ v 2.70 and higher, ARJ/2 v 2.62.10 and higher
50
= ARJZ with maximum distance up to 32K
51
= ARJZ with maximum distance up to 64K
100
= ARJ32 v 3.00b...3.01
101
= ARJ32 v 3.02 and higher
Note:
ARJ versions that created the Revision 1 header used a
different method 4 compression.
Support for it was dropped in
versions 1.xx. Such archives
may be incorrectly processed by
ARJ/2.
INFORMATION FOR DEVELOPERS
ARJ/2 header
format is 100% compatible with ARJ header format but
ARJ/2 was the first to make use of extended
header fields. Here's
a brief summary of the EA storage technology.
First, the extended
header layout is as follows (all values
are little-endian):
Bytes Description
----- -----------
1 Extended
header ID (0x45, the character 'E'). Indicates
a
EA information header. This is only valid if the arj_nbr
(header
revision number) is 10 or greater.
1 Continuation
flag. If set to 0, marks the end of block
chain
so the EA data can be concatenated and unpacked.
Also
it provides a way of checking for trashed EA blocks.
? Packed EA
block.
A standard
CRC32 of the whole header, including the ID
but
excluding header size field, is appended
to it. It is strongly
recommended that the CRC is
verified when any compressed EA
processing occurs.
The packed
EA block is a complex structure that can span over
multiple volumes. In case of such
spanning, separate parts of
the block are stored in separate
extended headers on different
volumes and they must be joined together
when the last block is
read (it's recognized by EXTFILE_FLAG being
clear). The layout of
the packed block follows:
Bytes Description
----- -----------
1 Compression
method (0...4, may differ from the one found
in
the file header)
2 Unpacked
EA data size in bytes
4 CRC32 of
unpacked EA data
? Raw packed
EA data
The raw
packed data may be decompressed using the original ARJ
algorithms. In the case when the file is
encrypted, the packed
block is also encrypted (but the garble
routine is reinitialized
when compression of the
EA occurs). The password modifier is
the same as for the first file section.
After decompression, the
following EA structure will exist:
Bytes Description
----- -----------
2 Total number
of EAs
1 fEA byte
(may indicate a critical EA)
1 Size of
extended attribute name
2 Size of
extended attribute value
? Extended
attribute name (not ASCIIZ)
? Extended
attribute value (binary data)
Even if
the file is a text one, the EAs must be handled as binary
data during compression and extraction.
When EAs are spanned over
multiple volumes, neither the packed block
header is repeated nor
the compression is restarted (actually,
the whole block including
its header is created in memory and later
split to volumes).
PRODUCT INFORMATION
ARJ/2 has
been developed by ARJ Software Russia with the most of
original ARJ code left intact. It has been
briefly tested on IBM
OS/2 v 1.3, 2.0, 2.1, 3.0, 4.0 and 4.5,
and Microsoft Windows NT
Workstation v 3.51 and 4.0. The file
systems chosen for testing
include FAT, HPFS, Ext2FS and NTFS.
The ARJ/2 development team:
Programmed
by Andrew Belov
Testing lead by Viatcheslav
Odintsov
(Source code is not available for public use)
CONTACT AUTHOR:
Andrew A. Belov
email address: andrew_belov@mtu-net.ru
Program URL: http://www.arjsoft.com
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