Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!yale!husc6!wjh12!djb
From: djb@wjh12.harvard.edu (David J. Birnbaum)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: UNIX/MS-DOS Compress/ARC
Keywords: compress, arc
Message-ID: <276@wjh12.harvard.edu>
Date: 9 Aug 88 13:35:51 GMT
Reply-To: djb@wjh12.UUCP (David J. Birnbaum)
Distribution: na
Organization: Harvard University, Cambridge MA
Lines: 29

This is a summary of the replies to an earlier posting, in which I inquired
about methods for compressing files to speed transfers between a PC running
MS-DOS and a VAX.  I am grateful to the several people who responded; I
tried to thank everyone individually by email, but some letters came back
as undeliverable - sorry.

There are two basic approaches: ARC and COMPRESS.  ARC 5.21 is a common
MS-DOS compression and archiving program.  A UNIX version is available
by ftp from CCVAX1.NCSU.EDU (logon as 'public'), where it is NEWARC.Z
in volume 11 (Unix), subvolume 5.  ARC does not compress as tightly as
COMPRESS, but it is a convenient way of compressing several files in a
single archive file.

COMPRESS is available in two versions for MS-DOS; both of these are 
apparently available from SIMTEL20.ARPA by ftp.  UNIX COMPRESS defaults
to 16 bit compression; the MS-DOS 16 bit COMPRESS requires over 500K
free memory.  The second MS-DOS compress is a 12 bit version, which will
run in machines with less memory.  To compress files in UNIX for later
decompression with 12 bit MS-DOS compress, use the -b 12 switch on the
UNIX end.

There is a commercial product called MKS Toolkit (by Mortice Kern Systems),
which includes several UNIX type features for MS-DOS, including COMPRESS.

Finally, I am grateful to the people who emailed executable COMPRESS
programs for MS-DOS.

David J. Birnbaum
(djb@wjh12.harvard.edu [Internet] - djb@harvunxw.bitnet [Bitnet])