This is the README file for the 21 November 1998 public release of the Info-ZIP group's portable UnZip zipfile-extraction program (and related utilities). unzip540.zip portable UnZip, version 5.4, source code distribution unzip540.tar.Z same as above, but compress'd tar format unzip540.tar.gz same as above, but gzip'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 "ZipPorts" in the proginfo directory. Also in source distributions: read "BUGS" for a list of known bugs, non-bugs and possible future bugs; INSTALL for instructions on how to build UnZip; and "Contents" for a commented listing of all the distributed files. __________________________________________________________________________ GENERAL INFO ------------ UnZip is an extraction utility for archives compressed in .zip format (also called "zipfiles"). Although highly compatible both with PKWARE's PKZIP and PKUNZIP utilities for MS-DOS and with 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 stupendous array of hardware-- from micros to supercomputers--and operating systems: Unix (many flavors), VMS, OS/2 (including DLL version), Windows NT and Windows 95 (including DLL version), Windows CE (GUI version), Windows 3.x (including DLL version), MS-DOS, AmigaDOS, Atari TOS, Acorn RISC OS, BeOS, Macintosh (GUI version), SMS/QDOS, MVS, VM/CMS, FlexOS, Tandem NSK, Human68k (mostly), AOS/VS (partly) and TOPS-20 (partly). UnZip features not found in PKUNZIP include source code; default extraction of directory trees (with a switch to defeat this, rather than the reverse); system-specific 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 UnZipSFX, ZipInfo, fUnZip and ZipGrep docs). For VMS, unzip_def.rnh or unzip_cli.help may be compiled into unzip.hlp and installed as a normal VMS help entry; see vms/descrip.mms. CHANGES AND NEW FEATURES ------------------------ The 5.4 release adds new ports, again. Other important items are changes to the listing format, new supplemental features and several bug fixes (especially concerning time-stamp handling...): - new IBM OS/390 port, a UNIX derivate (POSIX with EBCDIC charset) - complete revision of the MacOS port - changed listing formats to enlarge the file size fields for more digits - added capability to restore directory attributes on MSDOS, OS/2, WIN32 - enabled support of symbolic links on BeOS - Unix: optional Acorn filetype support, useful for volumes exported via NFS - several changes/additions to the DLL API - GUI SFX stub for Win16 (Windows 3.1) and Win32 (Windows 9x, Windows NT) - new free GCC compiler environments supported on WIN32 - many time-zone handling bug fixes for WIN32, AMIGA, ... The 5.32 release adds two new ports and a fix for at least one relatively serious bug: - new FlexOS port - new Tandem NSK port - new Visual BASIC support (compatibility with the Windows DLLs) - new -T option (set zipfile timestamp) for virtually all ports - fix for timestamps beyond 2038 (e.g., 2097; crashed under DOS/Win95/NT) - fix for undetected "dangling" symbolic links (i.e., no pointee) - fix for VMS indexed-file extraction problem (stored with Zip 2.0 or 2.1) - further performance optimizations The 5.31 release included nothing but small bug-fixes and typo corrections, with the exception of some minor performance tweaks. The 5.3 release added still more ports and more cross-platform portability features: - new BeOS port - new SMS/QDOS port - new Windows CE graphical port - VM/CMS port fully updated and tested - MVS port fully updated and tested - updated Windows DLL port, with WiZ GUI spun off to a separate package - full Universal Time (UTC or GMT) support for trans-timezone consistency - cross-platform support for 8-bit characters (ISO Latin-1, OEM code pages) - support for NT security descriptors (ACLs) - support for overwriting OS/2 directory EAs if -o option given - updated Solaris/SVR4 package facility What is (still!) not added is multi-part archive support (a.k.a. "diskette spanning") and a unified and more powerful DLL interface. These are the two highest priorities for the 6.x releases. Work on the former is almost certain to have commenced by the time you read this. This time we mean it! You betcha. :-) Although the DLLs are still basically a mess, the Windows DLLs (16- and 32- bit) now have some documentation and a small example application. Note that they should now be compatible with C/C++, Visual BASIC and Delphi. Weirder languages (FoxBase, etc.) are probably Right Out. Finally, note that support for unshrinking has now been turned OFF by default, although the source code is still available (as with unreducing). This was done for legal reasons, not technical ones, and no, we're not any happier about it than you are. :-( See the COPYING file for details. INTERNET RESOURCES ------------------ Info-ZIP's web site is at http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/ and contains the most up-to-date information about coming releases, links to binaries, and common problems. (See http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/FAQ.html for the latter.) Files may also be retrieved via ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/ . Thanks to Walnut Creek CD-ROM for hosting our primary site. DISTRIBUTION ------------ If you have a question regarding redistribution of Info-ZIP software, either as is