UPDATE.DOC, ARJ 2.21 September 1991 This documents new or updated information since ARJ 2.10 (includes ARJ 2.20 changes). ARJ.DOC has been updated with this information. ** IMPORTANT NEWS **************************************************** ARJ now has built-in MS-DOS 3.x international language support. On a very small number of large files, the use of the option -jh65535 has resulted in system hangs and file CRC errors. This only occurs with the number 65535. If you use this option without the -jt option, you should verify your archived files. I extend my deepest apologies to everyone so inconvenienced. This is fixed in ARJ 2.21. The ARJSORT program uses the MS-DOS SORT program which cannot handle input files larger than 64K. Sorting ARJ archives with a few hundred pathnames will exceed that size. The QSORT program by Ben Baker is a direct replacement for SORT and does not have this size limitation. Previous versions of ARJ used the TurboC++ clock() function. This function can keep the date from changing at midnight. The UNARJ software is now distributed separately in an archive named UNARJnnn.EXE. The "-ji" index file option now appends to instead of overwriting an existing index file. The second user prompt for the "w" command has been changed to ask for the number of match context lines. You may now register ARJ via credit card through Public Software Library. See CREDIT.CRD for more information. ********************************************************************** SAMPLE BATCH FILES A few batch files have been included with this distribution to demonstrate how to use ARJ and REARJ. Three batch files show how to backup and restore your hard disk drive. One batch files shows how to convert ZIP and LZH archives on your hard disk drive to ARJ format archives. Feel free to use and modify these batch files. As always, you should backup your important disk data if you plan to make changes to it such as using REARJ. USING ARJ WITHIN OTHER PROGRAMS Since ARJ uses over 280,000 bytes of memory during compression, it is difficult to use ARJ in a large application program unless that program swaps itself out of memory when it executes DOS commands like ARJ. However, there is at least one shareware program available that will automatically swap your large application program out of memory whenever it shells out to DOS to execute a command. The program SHROOM by Davis Augustine should be able solve this memory problem for you. The latest version is named SHROM17D.ZIP on Channel1 BBS. According to the SHROOM documentation, you can reach the author at: CompuServe id 72230,3053 Davis Augustine P.O. Box 390178 Cambridge, MA 02139 This is not an endorsement of the product SHROOM. The easiest way I have found to use this product is to type: SHROOM COMMAND SHROOM -v COMMAND will let you see SHROOM in action when you shell out to execute a DOS command. ARJMENU PROGRAM A new program called ARJMENU by Michael McCombs will be released shortly. As far as I know, it is the only menu-driven interface program that supports ALL of the features of ARJ. This program is aimed at users who hate command line interfaces. ARJMENU allows the user to pick and choose ARJ options. The user does not have to remember the ARJ switch syntax. This program supports ARJ version 2.21. You can reach the author at: Internet/ARPANet: mccombs@sumax.seattleu.edu Michael McCombs 517 Ninth Ave. #310 Seattle, WA. 98104 ARJR AND DEARJ PROGRAMS The new programs ARJR and DEARJ are available only to registered users of ARJ. ARJR is the ARJ program minus the help screen and SFX modules. DEARJ is the ARJR program minus the archive creation/modification functions. DEARJ is used for commercial software distributions involving multiple volume archives. See the LICENSE.DOC and ORDERFRM.DOC for more information. ARJ SFX MODULES The ARJ self-extraction modules have been improved in terms of speed. The "-je" module is slightly faster than ARJ in extraction speed. The one BIOS call that the SFX modules used has been removed to provide better compatibility with partial IBM compatibles. Both SFX modules have an identification string located in the first 1000 characters of the executable. The identification string is "aRJsfX" without the quotes. ARJ COMMANDS "e" or "x" commands During the extraction display, ARJ will display only one filename if the "from" and "to" filenames are identical. "f" and "u" commands ARJ will not physically update an archive when no files and no comments have been added to the archive. In other words, the date-time stamp both internally and externally (DOS) will remain unchanged. "o" command The ARJ "o" command will abort when attempted on a multiple volume archive. "p" command The switch option "-jp" will force the "p" command into a paged display mode like the DOS MORE command. "w" command A default choice of yes has been added to the caseless search prompt. The context message prompt has been changed. Instead of asking if the user wants to display the context of any matches, ARJ asks how many lines of context to display. An answer of "0" (zero) will disable the display of string match context. ARJ SWITCHES The switch character handling has been modified to allow a different switch character to be used in ARJ_SW and in the command line except when the option "-ju" (unix) has been specified. This will prevent problems when using the ARJ_SW variable and archiver shell programs that use a different switch character. If the ARJ_SW environment variable specifies a filename (text not beginning with a switch character), ARJ will open that filename and scan it looking for a line of text that begins in column 1 with the same letter as the ARJ command being executed. The following text is processed as the ARJ_SW switches. This allows each ARJ command to have its own switch settings. If no such command text is found, then no switch settings are processed as the ARJ_SW switches. SET ARJ_SW=C:\ARJ\ARJ.CFG C:\ARJ\ARJ.CFG contains: a -jm1 -jt -i1 l -jp e -i1 c -zcomment.txt "-+" switch Using this switch on the command line will inhibit the use of the ARJ_SW environment variable. "-$" switch Adding a non-existent volume label will NOT produce a warning or error code. "-a" switch ARJ will correctly scan hidden directories with the "-a" and "-a1" options. "-d" switch The "-d" switch option now works for the "j" command. "-m" switch Methods 3 and 4 are significantly faster and more compressive. Method 4 compression is almost twice as fast as the default method 1 compression. "-t" switch The "-t" option has been modified to allow setting file type by suffix similar to "-js" option. If you want to set the file type to text mode for .ASM and .C files, you would specify the option "-t1.asm.c". ARJ a archive *.* -t1.asm.c.h.doc If you to specify the binary file type by suffix, you must specify the default file type to text and then specify the type by suffix, because the default file type is normally binary. ARJ a archive *.* -t1 -t0.com.exe.obj Because of the way ARJ checks all files to be archived in text mode, some true text files will not pass the test. In this case, you can specify the "f" modifier to force text mode. This modifier can be combined with the "-t1." suffix option. This will not force ARJ to use text mode on a true binary file. ARJ a archive *.bat -t1f ARJ a archive *.* -t1f.bat.asm.doc "-v" switch The "-vv" option will beep after the last volume. This may be used on a single archive creation by using a command similar to this: ARJ a -vv9999K archive *.* When using the "-va" option, ARJ will prompt concerning disk space when there is less than 10,000 bytes free. "-z" switch The "-z" comment switch works with other modification functions besides the "c" command. This allows you to add a comment at the same time as you add files to an archive. Example: ARJ a -zcomment.txt archive *.doc "-ji" switch The "-ji" has been changed to append the filename logging information to an already existing file. "-jl" switch The "-jl" switch forces ARJ to display only the filespec of filenames for the different progress displays. "-jv" switch When used with the "ARJ -jp p", "ARJ s", and "ARJ w" commands, the "-jv" switch sets ARJ to display IBM graphics characters. "-jw" switch The "-jw" switch allows you to specify the output filename for extracted data. When using this switch, you should only select one file for extraction. This is similar but not exactly the same as using the "p" command with DOS output redirection. Using DOS redirection would cause all of the output of the extraction to be put into the output file. Using "-jw" would cause ARJ to prompt for overwrite permission per each file extracted to the output file. Example: ARJ e -jwfile2.doc archive file1.doc In the above example, ARJ puts the data from "file1.doc" in the archive into the file "file2.doc". "-jx" switch The "-jx" switch during extraction mode allows the user to specify the file position to start in the output file. This can be used to append data to an existing file. Example: ARJ e -jx10000 archive file1 This is similar to using the command "ARJ p archive >> output". To duplicate this redirection with ARJ would require the following: ARJ e -jx2000K -jwoutput archive "-jy" switch The "-jy" option allows you to specify the new option characters "y" and "r". The "y" option sets ARJ to use single character Y/N/A/Q query prompts (yes, no, always, quit). The "r" option sets ARJ to erase all typeahead before user queries. Example: ARJ e -jyyr archive set single character query and erase typeahead. You may set the "-jyyr" option in the environment variable ARJ_SW. There is no way to override such an option once selected. end document