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From: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: news.admin,news.sysadmin,comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Re: Dangerous hole in Usenet!
Keywords: "it's a secret ... but they told me!" -- david dobkin
Message-ID: <2309@ficc.uu.net>
Date: 28 Nov 88 13:07:31 GMT
References: <1227@vsi1.UUCP> <117@hudson.Morgan.COM> <800@mailrus.cc.umich.edu> <624@pcrat.UUCP>
Organization: SCADA
Lines: 23

In article <624@pcrat.UUCP>, rick@pcrat.UUCP (Rick Richardson) writes:
> In article <2301@ficc.uu.net> peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes:
> >The referenced article suggested switching from shar to some more portable
> >format.

> >Might I suggest the Software Tools Group's text archive format? It's designed

> IF a new format is being proposed as a standard, please
> make sure that it can easily handle the odd bits of binary
> stuff that are needed by many programs.

UUencode them before adding them to the archive. Write a program that wraps
around 'ar' and does this... you know, a tools-based approach.

> Also, the format should allow browsing at least the first
> few files without having to unpack it.

The software tools format gives you this... it's purely textual. It's very
easy to crack open, too. For example, "grep '^-h-'" gives you an index.
-- 
Peter da Silva  `-_-'  Ferranti International Controls Corporation
"Have you hugged  U  your wolf today?"     uunet.uu.net!ficc!peter
Disclaimer: My typos are my own damn business.   peter@ficc.uu.net