First information about the binary distribution of VMS UnZip 5.4 ---------------------------------------------------------------- This archive comes in different variations: "unz540x-vms--{obj|exe}.exe", and "unz540x-vms--obj.bck", where is "axp", "vax-decc", or "vax-vaxc", depending on the environment used for creating the binaries. ...-obj.exe denotes object library distributions that require a link step on the local machine. ...-exe.exe denotes "ready-to-run" executable distributions, that do not require additional work. The caveat of these executable distribution is that they do not run on VMS versions that are older than the system used for building the executables (typical error message: "shareable library mismatch"). ...-obj.bck are uncompressed VMS backup saveset distributions of the object libraries. They are much larger than the self-extracting Zip archives and are only supplied for people with (old) versions of VMS where the supplied SFX archives do not work. Therefore, if you already have an old version of UnZip for VMS (5.0p1, better: 5.2), the better choice is to fetch the Zip SFX archive and extract it manually, using the older VMS UnZip program. Note that backup savesets are 32256-bytes-fixed-length-record files; when tranfered via binary FTP, the resulting file's record format is usually 512-bytes-fixed-length. Before extracting them with BACKUP, the record size of the saveset has to be restored to 32256 bytes (best done with the public domain "FILE" utility, available from DECUS; or found on ftp.wku.edu.). The contents of these saveset are identically to the corresponding ...-obj.exe archives. Contents of the "vms" executables self extracting archives for UnZip 5.4: a) common files (documentation etc.): 00binary.vms this file readme.vms general VMS info about using UnZip and zipfiles readme what UnZip is; general information license Info-ZIP copyright and distribution policy where pointer to Zip/UnZip support archives makesfx.com command file to create self-extracting archives unzip.txt UnZip manual page, human-readable format unzipsfx.txt UnZipSFX manual page, human-readable format zipinfo.txt ZipInfo manual page, human-readable format 3rdparty.bug known bugs in PK[UN]ZIP, WinZip, etc. unzip.hlp UnZip help module, for default command interface unzip_cli.hlp UnZip help module, for VMSCLI command interface unzipsfx.hlp UnZipSFX pre-formatted help page b) object library distributions: link_unz.com command procedure for the linking step vms/unzip.opt auxiliary files required for linking step vms/unzipsfx.opt ... unzip._olb object libraries for UnZip and UnZipSFX unzipsfx._olb (both command interfaces) unzipcli._olb additional object libraries for UnZip and unzsfxcli._olb UnZipSFX, VMSCLI (DCL like) interface c) executable distributions: unzip.exe UnZip executable, default command interface unzipsfx.exe UnZipSFX executable, default command interace unzip_cli.exe UnZip executable, VMSCLI command interface (To save space, unzipsfx_cli.exe has been omitted from the executable distributions. The command interface of the SFX stubs is of minor importance, anyway, since it cannot be used without first defining a "foreign command" to run the SFX archive. In most cases, it is much easier to use "$run .exe" at the command prompt.) The binary files "*.<...>_olb" and "*.exe" have been stored in the Zip archives with VMS attributes saved! If you extract them using a non-VMS port of UnZip, you may get unusable files. If you decided to fetch the object library distribution, you have to link the executables on your local site. This requires runtime support for the C runtime library to be installed, which may not be present on older VAX VMS systems (prior to VMS 6). To create the executables, just invoke the "link_unz.com" command procedure. This will generate all executables (both unzip with UNIX-style command syntax and with VMSCLI command interface), but note that the executable's extension is "._exe"! In case your system is a VAX and your current working directory carries both the DEC C and the VAX C object distributions, you have to specify either "VAXC" or "DECC" to tell link_unz.com which binaries you want to build. Additionally, link_unz.com defines foreign commands for the newly linked executables, so you can test them without any further work. In order to use the default (UNIX-like) command interface, you can proceed straight ahead after unpacking the distribution. If you rather prefer to use the VMSCLI interface, you have to specify the option "VMSCLI" (or just "CLI") to the command starting link_unz.com. The executables (object libraries) in this archive have been compiled with the following options enabled: * [decription support] The environment used for compilation was: a) On Alpha AXP : OpenVMS(AXP) 6.2; DEC C V 5.6-003 b1) On VAX : OpenVMS(VAX) 6.1; DEC C V 4.0 b2) alternatively VAX C V 3.2 One final note: The binary files of the distribution have been archived with "saving all VMS attributes" enabled. Please do not repack the binary part of the archives on a non-VMS system, to prevent corruption of the files. 04 December 1997, Christian Spieler