Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site down.FUN Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!princeton!down!honey From: honey@down.FUN (code 101) Newsgroups: net.unix Subject: Re: Improved Connoisseur's Shar Message-ID: <412@down.FUN> Date: Wed, 9-Jan-85 23:26:33 EST Article-I.D.: down.412 Posted: Wed Jan 9 23:26:33 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 11-Jan-85 23:21:06 EST References: <43600012@hpfcla.UUCP> <1@wanginst.UUCP> Organization: Princeton University, EECS Lines: 24 in re: shell archives in net.sources (see Ref's line articles). this whole circus drives me crazy! shell archives were first popularized in '82 or so, in the form of 6 line scripts, e.g., echo '# To unbundle, sh this file' for i in $*; do echo "cat >$i <<'//GO.SYSIN DD *'" cat $i echo "//GO.SYSIN DD *" done some people added echo on extraction, others added a prefix character to protect against >From, others added basename. this turned a simple 6 line script into a simple 8 line script. but wait! here's a 2000+ line c program that runs several times slower, does not protect against >From, requires the recipient to edit the archive before extracting it, and has a host of other ills. punch line: by all appearances, the authors are proud of their work. amazing. -- peter