
2ZIP: .ARC/.MD/.PAK/.ZOO to .ZIP Conversion Utility         Version 2.1\89.03.09

 1. 2ZIP What does it do?

      2ZIP allows you to convert files archived in several other compression
      methods to the new PKZIP format.

 2. 2ZIP Disclaimer

      2ZIP is provided "as-is".  I make no claim that it is suitable for any
      particular purpose.  It may, in fact, not work at all.  I've had some
      pretty good luck with it, but you might not.

      2ZIP is written in Microsoft C 5.1.  It doesn't use any special
      interrupts or MS-DOS features to perform the task at hand.  The source
      code for 2ZIP is available for a fee (and a non-disclosure agreement must
      be signed).

 3. 2ZIP Credits

      2ZIP 2.1 was written in Microsoft C 5.1.

      2ZIP was inspired in some small way by a program called ZIPPER.  ZIPPER
      does basically what 2ZIP does, but only for .ARC and .PAK files.  ZIPPER
      would also like you to pay a shareware fee.

      2ZIP payment is a little different.  See the "2ZIP payment" section of
      this document (coming right up).

      If you've used ZIPPER, you may also think it is annoying (whistling
      windows, etc.).  As Chuck Forsberg likes to say, "...if you're looking
      for a modem video game, Pro-YAM is not for you..."  Likewise, if you're
      looking for a PKZIP conversion video game you should probably look
      elsewhere.

      This is NOT meant to imply that I have anything against the person (or
      persons) who wrote ZIPPER.  I simply dislike their program.

      Many and big thanks to the folks who helped me test 2ZIP.  Among them:
      Paul Waldinger @ Sound of Music PCBoard, Phil Brushaber @ The Ad Game
      BBS, John Souvestre, and Mark Stein @ The Laguna Hills BBS.  Many thanks
      to these folks.

 4. 2ZIP Payment

      2ZIP is free.  I'm offering it as a service to promote what I believe is
      a superior compression program (PKZIP/PKUNZIP).  I would certainly
      appreciate your comments on 2ZIP, and I would probably be willing to add
      an enhancement or two if it's needed, (and if you say I'm a nice guy for
      doing it).

      If you use 2ZIP a lot and really feel like you owe me cash, send a
      donation to my address in the $2 to $5 range.  Please do not send more
      than five dollars in any event.  Any money collected will be used to
      expand my toolbox for other public enhancement utilities like 2ZIP.

      If you've got tons and tons of money, I would recommend registering the
      shareware programs you use, like PKZIP/PKUNZIP, DSZ, GT Power, Etc.
      THESE authors depend on your support, I don't.







2ZIP: .ARC/.MD/.PAK/.ZOO to .ZIP Conversion Utility         Version 2.1\89.03.09

 5. 2ZIP Minimum Requirements

      MS/PC DOS 3.1 or higher
      512k RAM (2ZIP might work with less:  I make no guarantees)
      Enough disk space to hold two copies of the archive being processed, and
      all of the files it contains.

      NOTE:

      Versions of 2ZIP prior to 2.0 may create incomplete ZIP files if
      sufficient disk space is not available.  2ZIP v2.0 will detect disk space
      problems and will not remove any archives that can't be fully processed.
      Any failed conversion will appear in the 2ZIP_BAD.LOG file, explained in
      depth below.

      Son of NOTE:

      Make sure you have a relatively large FILES= setting in your CONFIG.SYS
      file.  FILES=20 is probably good enough.  Archive -> ZIP convertors can
      take a lot of file handles because they create child processes.

 6. 2ZIP Installation

      First, you must have a copy of each de-compression program you are
      currently using on your system in one of your DOS search directories.
      This is probably already the case, but if you want to be extra sure 2ZIP
      will work in all cases (at least all cases it was designed for), copy
      PKUNPAK.EXE (v3.61), PAK.EXE (v1.60), ZOO.EXE (v1.41), MDCD.EXE and
      PKZIP.EXE (Current version) in your DOS search directory.  I'm using my
      \UTIL directory for this purpose.

      If you currently use PKXARC (or some other unarchiving program), you must
      rename or copy it to PKUNPAK.EXE for 2ZIP to work correctly.

      Next, you should set up a WORK/LOG directory using the 2ZIP environment
      variable.  Place a line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file which reads

                     SET 2ZIP=C:\UTIL

      (or whatever you want your WORK/LOG directory to be).  This directory
      _must_ exist.  If it doesn't, 2ZIP won't work correctly.

      A subdirectory will be created under this WORK/LOG directory called
      TMP$KMS, so it is perfectly O.K. to have other files in this directory.
      The TMP$KMS subdirectory will be removed after each 2ZIP session.

      You may also want to set up a default compression variable using the
      2ZIP_C environment variable.  Compression defaults to "-eb4 -ea4" you may
      wish to change it to -eb4 -ea2, for instance.  To do this, include a line
      in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file which reads:

                     SET 2ZIP_C=-eb4 -ea2

      Make sure not to enter blanks before or after the '=' sign (i.e. SET
      2ZIP_C = -eb4 is NOT correct).  If you don't know what this means, don't
      worry--2ZIP will work just fine if you don't set this variable.




                                     - 2 -



2ZIP: .ARC/.MD/.PAK/.ZOO to .ZIP Conversion Utility         Version 2.1\89.03.09

 7. 2ZIP Usage

      2ZIP is fairly easy to use (once you've performed the above installation
      steps).  To convert a single archive to the ZIP format you would type:

                     2ZIP file.arc
                     2ZIP TEST.ARC       (to convert TEST.ARC to TEST.ZIP)

      Wildcards are allowed, so to convert all .ARCs to ZIP format:

                     2ZIP *.ARC

      And multiple command-line files are allowed, so to convert all archives,
      all PAK files, and FOO.ZOO you would type:

                     2ZIP *.ARC *.PAK FOO.ZOO

      Pretty straightforward, huh?  While 2ZIP is processing you'll see
      something like this:

      

      2ZIP    .ARC/.MD/.PAK/.ZOO to .ZIP conversion utility!   Version 2.1
      Copyright (c) 1989, Kelly Stanonik                   All Rights Reserved.
      
      TEST1.ARC      Un-archiving.  ZIPing.  Setting Date and Time.  Done.
      TEST3.ARC      Un-archiving.  ZIPing.  Setting Date and Time.  Done.
      TEST5.PAK      Un-PAKing.     ZIPing.  Setting Date and Time.  Done.
      TEST6.ZOO      Un-ZOOing.     ZIPing.  Setting Date and Time.  Done.
      LZ.MD          Un-MDCDing.    ZIPing.  Setting Date and Time.  Done.
      TEST7.MD       Un-MDCDing.    ZIPing.  Setting Date and Time.  Done.
      
      Finished!    6 files converted.

      

      Note that 2ZIP sets the date and time of the resulting .ZIP file to the
      original date and time of the .ARC, .PAK, .MD, or .ZOO file.  This should
      make you sysops out there happy.

      2ZIP automatically selects PKZIP's highest compression ratio for both
      ASCII and Binary files unless it is overridden with the 2ZIP_C
      environment variable.  This can result in a longer compression time, but
      decompression will be faster and file sizes will be smaller.

 8. 2ZIP Batch File Usage

      2ZIP can be used quite easily from a batch file.  In addition to the fact
      that the output from 2ZIP can be redirected using the standard DOS ">"
      redirection symbol, it will also return a DOS error level if a fatal
      error occurs.









                                     - 3 -



2ZIP: .ARC/.MD/.PAK/.ZOO to .ZIP Conversion Utility         Version 2.1\89.03.09

 9. 2ZIP Switches

      2ZIP supports the following switches (case IS significant).  Switches can
      be placed anywhere on the command line (i.e. 2ZIP -l *.* _or_ 2ZIP *.* -
      l):

      

      -l

      Full logging enabled.  This switch causes 2ZIP to place a log entry in
      the 2ZIP.LOG file (located in the directory pointed to by the 2ZIP
      environment variable) for each file it processes.  Note that the
      2ZIP_BAD.LOG file will still be maintained regardless of the status of
      the -l switch.

      

      -z

      Causes the contents of the COMMENT.ZIP file (located in the directory
      pointed to by the 2ZIP environment variable) to be used as a ZIP comment
      for each file that 2ZIP processes.  For instance, if you place the
      following line in your COMMENT.ZIP file:

      * A product of the KMS BBS! *

      and 2ZIP a bunch of files (2ZIP C:\UPLOAD\*.* -z) with the zip comment
      switch, 2ZIP will place "* A product of the KMS BBS! *" in each file
      processed.

      If you try to use the -z switch, and the COMMENT.ZIP file doesn't exist,
      2ZIP will abort with a fatal error.

 10. 2ZIP Error Log

      If, for some reason, 2ZIP is unable to create a .ZIP file, the word
      "Error." will replace "Done." in 2ZIP's output, and a line will be added
      to the 2ZIP_BAD.LOG file (located in whatever directory you set the 2ZIP
      environment variable).

      This log file contains the name of the original file and the target .ZIP
      file, and the date and time of the attempt.

      2ZIP uses a special directory notation which allows it to specify when an
      error occurred in an archive within another archive.  If 2ZIP encountered
      an error in an archive within an archive, the log entry might look like
      this:

      C:\UP\(THISARC.ARC)\FRED.ARC       failed  Sun Mar 05 00:21:37

      This means that in the C:\UP directory, there is a file called
      THISARC.ARC.  _Within_ THISARC.ARC there is an archive called FRED.ARC
      which 2ZIP had some trouble processing.

      2ZIP does not delete the original file if an error occurs.




                                     - 4 -



2ZIP: .ARC/.MD/.PAK/.ZOO to .ZIP Conversion Utility         Version 2.1\89.03.09

 11. 2ZIP Bugs & Comments

      Kelly Stanonik (KMS)                    Bix:            kms
      15737 Bluffside Ct. #155                CompuServe:     74730,77
      Chino Hills, CA  91709                  Home:           (714) 597 5666

 12. 2ZIP Versions

      What program would be complete without a list of versions?  A new one
      perhaps?  Well--I'd imagine so.  2ZIP is pretty new, but I've already got
      a couple.

      Version 1.1

      This was the first release version of 2ZIP.

      Version 1.2

      2ZIP now converts .ARC files located within archives.  Sorry, but 1.2
      only converts one level deep (if you 2ZIP FRED.ARC, and FRED.ARC contains
      BOB.ARC and SALLY.ARC, these files will be Zipped too.  If BOB.ARC
      contains SAMMY.ARC, though, SAMMY.ARC will remain SAMMY.ARC).

      I guess my personal opinion is that if someone puts eight levels of
      archives within an archive they deserve to convert it themselves.  My
      mind may be changed if folks think multiple level archive conversion
      would be useful.

      Version 1.3

      2ZIP now recognizes the 2ZIP_C environment variable to specify the
      default PKZIP compression.  If this variable doesn't exist, 2ZIP defaults
      to "-eb4 -ea4" otherwise, YOU be the judge.  A sample setting might be

      SET 2ZIP_C=-eb4

      I've had pretty good luck with this, in fact.  (This turns on full-
      reducing compression for binary files, and uses shrinking exclusively for
      ASCII files)

      Version 2.0

      This version turned out to be mainly a big beta test.

      Version 2.1 (!)

      This is a pretty hefty revision (hence the major number increase).  2ZIP
      has been ported to Microsoft C 5.1 from Microsoft QuickBASIC.  Error
      checking has been beefed up, two switches (-l and -z) have been added,
      and the log file format has been expanded and enhanced.










                                     - 5 -


