Archive Utilities for DOS [page 2 of 2]

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Notes: Archivers are listed on the Compress, Encode, and Encrypt page. Also see File Management for archive-aware file managers.


ARCHIVE CONVERTERS

Notes: Also see AVIEW or the free RCVT program packaged with the shareware RAR archiver.


1. FACT- Command line archive format conversion utility.

* * * *

FACT is a command line utility that converts among different archive formats and is smart enough to preserve internal directory structure. Easily convert a file to several different formats with one command. External archivers required. Author: D. D. Anderson. (1997)

Notes:

  1. The following formats are supported in the default configuration files (can be edited to add additional formats):
    [ACB] [AIN] [ARJ] [HA] [HPK(HPACK)] [HYP(HYPER)] [J (JAR)] [LIB] (CODEC) [LIM] [LZH](LHA)] [LZS(LARC)][PAK][PAQ] [RAR] [SQZ] [UC2] [X1] [YC(YAC)] [ZIP] [ARC] [DWC] [HAP] [JRC] [PUT] [SAR] [ZOO]
  2. A program can be called after FACT decompresses the primary archive (e.g., a-virus scanner, defined in the ini file).
  3. This package also includes the utility SMALLEST which deletes all but the smallest archive after converting to multiple formats.
  4. FACT does not preserve archive comments.
Usage: FACT archives .NewExt [-d] [-q] [-w] [-1]
archives = specification of the archives to convert. 
.NewExt = extension(s) you wish to convert them to.
-d = forces the original archive to be deleted. 
-q = hides most of the compressors' messages. 
-w = causes FACT to pause after every action. 
-1 = only recompress the _primary_ archive.

download fact132.zip (55K)


2. ARC2ARC- Command line conversion among PKZIP, LZH, ARJ, RAR archives.

unrated [added 5-11-98 updated 2-19-99]

Simple to use and not fancy. ARC2ARC converts among only the 4 most popular DOS formats in use today- ZIP, LZH, ARJ, and RAR (doesn't convert self extracting EXEs). Defaults to maximum compression settings during conversion but has a single option to use normal compression. Won't convert multiple volume RAR or ARJ archives. Because everything is hard-coded in the 36K executable, ARC2ARC requires specific archivers (needs PKZIP/PKUNZIP; can't use InfoZip). English and Czech versions included. Author: Martin Ptacek, Czech Republic. (1999)

USAGE: ARC2ARC <inputfile.ext> <archivetype> (RAR | ZIP | ARJ | LZH | EXE) [/n]
   inputfile.ext  - source file, extension cannot be omitted!
   archivetype    - which archive type convert to (RAR, ZIP, ARJ, LZH, EXE)
   /n             - when used, program uses normal compression level

2-19-99: New in v1.2: Added prompt for deletion of original archive after conversion; fixed bug with conversion of archive directories, docs removed from exe.

download arc2arc.zip (37K)


ARCHIVE DESCRIPTION LIST (FILES.BBS) CREATORS

Used by BBS sysops to create lists of their file collections, complete with file date, size, and content description. Others can use these programs to quickly create a formatted text catalog of archives they've collected. There are literally hundreds of these types of programs floating around- I haven't tried many. Output usually resembles the following (just a single entry from a FILES.BBS shown here):

Filename     Size   Date     Description of File Contents
ADDCL101.ZIP 0367   09-02-97 ADDCOL v1.01- Free DOS util: adds a single
                             column of numbers in a text file. W/ Pascal
                             source. (c) 1993 [12/20/93] by David Daniel
                             Anderson - Reign Ware.

To convert a FILES.BBS list to HTML see BBS2HTML or FiD.


1. FileID- Create description list of zip/arj/lha archives -with many options.

* * * *

FileID creates a formatted descriptive list (= FILES.BBS list) of archive files with corresponding sizes, dates, and descriptions. FileID is much more flexible than CDesc, but supports only ZIP, ARJ, and LHA formats and does not have the capability to analyze image files. European date format. Includes a nice progress bar, and operation can be interrupted with ESC.

Notable features I like:

Limitations:

SWITCHES:
/L:filename   Specify file for output.
/M            Use disk label as filename
/A            If list file already exists, the new list will be appended to
              the existing list, in stead of overwriting it.
/4            Makes descript.ion-compatible list
/R            Makes descript.ion-compatible list & removes special characters
/U:filename   Update list (still slow).
/S            Subdirectories will also be included in the list
/O            Sorts the list in alphanumeric order
/E:filename   Adds a header to the list
/F:filename   Adds a footer to the list
/B:n          1=size, 2=date, 3=both excluded from list
/D            Only archives including a description will be included
/W:n          Create listing of n days wares
/1            One-liner descriptions
/C            List contents of archive, if it contains no description
/X            Include descriptions from self-extracting archives (.EXE). This
              usually makes processing slower, though.
/Z            Use archive comment if no description found
/T            Use DESCRIPT.ION/FILE.DES/FILE.SDI/DISK.ID description if
              FILE_ID.DIZ not found.
/P            Include PCBoard color codes from FILE_ID.DIZ files
/-            Put a line between each description.
/N:filename   Use language file
/I:directory  Specify directory where temporary files will be written. For
              example: FILEID /I:D:\TEMPFILE
/Y            Beep when ready
/H:filename   Shows the list after it has been created using specified
              program or EDIT if none is specified.

Author: Janne Lindberg. Finland (1995)

download fileid4i.zip (beta, 34K)


2. FiD- FILES.BBS creator with flexible formatting.

unrated [added 7-2-98]

While FiD may be overkill for anyone but a sysop, it's the most configurable archive description list creator listed here. FiD can do much more than extract descriptions from archives- it can also id and create lists for image, multimedia, and html files.The user can define up to 600 additional file extensions in the configuration file. One of the more impressive features of FiD is its output format flexibility: the user can custom design a FILES.BBS using macros in the ini file, e.g., HTML output is supported.

Notes:

Authors: PC-i team, Hungary. (1998).

download pci-f215.zip (193K)


3. CDesc- Creates BBS-style description list of archive/ image files.

* * *

The simplest of the FILES.BBS creators listed here. Run CDesc on a directory of archive files and it will create a neatly formatted descriptive list of archive files with corresponding sizes, dates, and descriptions (extracted from FILE_ID.DIZ or DESC.SDI files). The list is sorted by the order of files in your directory (if you want to produce an alphanumerical listing, first use a file sorter like Csap on your directory). If no description file is packed with an archive, CDesc will indicate this in the listing. Supported archive formats: ARC, ARJ, HA, HPACK, HYPER, LHA, PAH, PAK, RAR, SQZ, UC2, ZIP, ZOO. Requires external archivers. CDesc can also extract information from images (type, dimensions, and colors). Supported image formats: BMP, GIF87a, GIF89a, JPEG, PCX, PiNG." CDesc does not recognize some compressed JPEG and non-Windows bitmap files.

Limitations:

Usage:

CDesc <files_to_query> <text_file_output>

Author: D. D. Anderson. (1996).

download cdesc110.zip (25K)


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