RE: portable issues with zip files
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg38487] RE: portable issues with zip files
- From: "Ersek, Ted R" <ErsekTR at navair.navy.mil>
- Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 04:24:35 -0500 (EST)
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
[ I (Ted Ersek) wrote ] > David Park (djmp at earthlink.net) has Mathematica packages posted as zip > files at http://home.earthlink.net/~djmp/Mathematica.html and he > recommends that I use the same approach for packages I post on > mathsource. I have been able to download and install his packages on my > PC without problem. However can Mac and Unix users handle the zip files? > If they can't, can I create the compressed files Mac and Unix users need > using my PC? > [ P.J. Hinton replied ] There is a suite of command line tools for creating and unpacking PK-ZIP format archives under Unix, but they are not always installed on Unix systems. Unix users typically expect archives to be provided in tape archive (TAR) format with some form of compression applied thereafter. The two most common are compress (<filename base>.tar.Z) and GNU ZIP (<filename base>.tar.gz). The compress format is more likely to be found on commercial Unix systems, and GNU ZIP is more common on Linux systems, but many hosts will have both tools available. Most Macintosh systems will have the freeware tools StuffIt Expander, which is capable of unpacking a wide variety of formats, including PK-ZIP, but they usually expect their files to be provided using StuffIt's own proprietary format with BinHex encoding (<filename base>.sit.hqx) to protect the file's resource fork. To create the StuffIt files, you need to get the shareware product DropStuff. --------------- Next I (Ted Ersek) ask: Most of the time my files are less than 100 Kb, so I don't have much need for compression. I think David Park recommends zip files not so much for the compression, but because it allows him to make the process of installing his packages easier. So to give the best support for all platforms what formats should I provide? perhaps; <filename>.zip <filename>.sit.hqx <filename>.tar.Z or should I also include <filename>.tar.gz for the convienience of the Linux users? How can I make <filename>.tar.Z and <filename>.tar.gz with my PC? I always thought if I post notebooks and packages without compression as <filename>.nb and <filename>.m they are completely portable. Is this true? Thanks, Ted Ersek