From:	CRDGW2::CRDGW2::MRGATE::"SMTP::CRVAX.SRI.COM::RELAY-INFO-VAX" 17-DEC-1990 12:28:13.14
To:	MRGATE::"ARISIA::EVERHART"
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Subj:	unzip for VMS available

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Date: 14 Dec 90 00:04:27 GMT
From: eagle!data.nas.nasa.gov!amelia!roelofs@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Cave Newt)
Organization: University of Chicago
Subject: unzip for VMS available
Message-Id: <1990Dec14.000427.29496@nas.nasa.gov>
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The Info-ZIP work group has just released version 4.0 of UnZip, a 
decompression utility compatible with the MS-DOS based PKZIP/PKUNZIP
archivers.  This version, like its predecessors, is primarily targetted
at the Unix crowd, but it also compiles and runs under DOS, OS/2 and
VMS (mostly...more on that in a moment).

This posting is mainly just an announcement of availability, since 
there don't seem to be any other VMS users in Info-ZIP and the news
may be of interest to folks reading this newsgroup.  The new release
is available via anonymous ftp from Simtel (wsmr-simtel20.army.mil,
26.2.0.74) in directory pd1:[misc.vaxvms]unzip401.arc.  (There's
also a compressed tar archive version available in pd1:[misc.unix]
unzip401.tar-z.)  4.0 should also be appearing in comp.sources.unix 
very soon now.

I know next to nothing about VMSSERV sites aside from the fact that
such things exist, but if someone wants to make the package available
in that manner, please do.  Please DON'T ask me to mail copies, however,
unless you happen to be the moderator of one of the big sites.

Now, as for the program itself:

Unzip is distributed as a collection of source files, a few makefiles,
and some minimal documentation.  If you don't know what a .zip file is,
you probably don't have any need for this program.  The VMS-specific
stuff includes some slightly more detailed notes about the quirks of
the VMS version; a "makefile" which is nothing more than a DCL script
to invoke the compiler and linker; and an options file to create a
shared-image executable, or whatever it's called.  All this has been
tested under VMS 5.2, using VAX C 3.0; again, I plead ignorance with
regard to compatibility with other versions of VMS and/or C.  Just
keep telling yourself that the price is right... :-)

The problem to which I alluded above is the fact that the current version
requires its zipfiles to be in VMS "stream-LF" format.  My version of
VMS zmodem creates files in this mode, but ftp uses fixed-length 512-byte
records.  So you need some way to change the record type of the zipfile.
On our system is a utility called "attribute" which does this; I don't
know how common it is, but I think it's supposed to be free.  John Lundin
once told me of another utility called "file," written by Joe Meadows,
which appears to perform much the same function.  I know the latter 
utility is available via mail servers, but that's about the limit of
my knowledge.

All of this unpleasantness applies to unzip 4.0 only.  Version 4.1 will fix
the problem, but it probably won't be released for another month or two.
So you can either wait for that or try to find one of these file utilities.
There is also an extremely ancient version of unzip (2.0?) floating around
which avoids the extra hassle, but it's a little weak on features.  (Nor
do I have any idea where to find it.)

And lastly, anyone who's interested in helping with the development of
unzip and/or its companion zip utility should subscribe to the Info-ZIP
newsletter by sending mail to Info-ZIP-REQUEST@wsmr-simtel20.army.mil.
Bug reports, suggestions, complaints, vacuous praise, gratuitous abuse,
etc., can all be sent to Info-ZIP@wsmr-simtel20.army.mil.  It will most
probably be ignored with gleeful abandon, but at least you'll have tried.

And VERY lastly, I don't read this newsgroup, so send me e-mail if it's
absolutely life-threatening that you get through to me.  Try not to get
carried away.  If I get too much I'll probably just post a follow-up
group-response message.  Oh yeah, I'm outta here for 10 days starting
next Tuesday, so don't get too excitable if you don't hear from me right
away.

Greg