Conference hydra::amiga_v1

993.0. "ARC file formats on AMIGA and VAX" by WJG::GUINEAU (W. John Guineau III) Mon Dec 21 1987 10:36

Whats up with the various ARC files on the net? 

	� Some downline load de-ARC fine.

	� Some downline load and when de-ARCed, have a "bad header"
	  in last file (via ARC -l arcfile) and when extracted, last
          file "fails CRC check" (expected something like this here)

	� Some are just full of "bad header" via ARC -l arcfile and
	  can't (didn't even bother to) be extracted	  

I know on VMS I've seen 2 file formats for these ARC files (DIR/FULL)

(BDASH.ARC)
Record format:      Stream_LF
Record attributes:  Carriage return carriage control

- Dosent work- has "bad headers"


(DBUG.ARC)
Record format:      Variable length, maximum 510 bytes
Record attributes:  None

Works fine.


Seems like any with "Variable length, maximum 510 bytes" are ok
and  "Stream_LF - Carriage return carriage control" no go.


I remember Ed saying something about CVTARC? VMS *can* read the Stream_LF files
while IT complains about the "Variable length, maximum 510 bytes" ones"


Now that I run CVTARC (in <--- that window over there), I see it converts
between fixed and stream LF formats. Guess thats all I need to do!

Oh Well, maybe someone else will benifit from this note...

        I have experienced similar problems and have also looked into
    this issue.  I have a few questions and observations.
    
    1. What is and where can it be found DBUG.ARC.  Is this perhaps
       a real debugger ie like VMS Debugger (which is dear to my heart)
    
    2. Where can I get the source to CVTARC to create a version of it
       on my VAX.
    
    3. I have also seen two additional formats.
    
     (CEPTOR.ARC)
     Record Format:      Fixed length 128 byte records
     Record attributes:  None

     (VC.ARC)
     Record Format:      Fixed length 512 byte records
     Record attributes:  None

    
     What does CVTARC do to these ?

    
>    1. What is and where can it be found DBUG.ARC.  Is this perhaps
>       a real debugger ie like VMS Debugger (which is dear to my heart)

	It's on mvcad3::user0:[Amiga.FF102]. Don't know how good
	it is cause I haven't unARCed it yet!
    
>    2. Where can I get the source to CVTARC to create a version of it
>       on my VAX.

	Copy mvcad3::user0:[Amiga.tools]CVTARC.EXE. Then do a
	$ CVT :== $disk:[directory]CVTARC
	$ CVT v arcfile

	to fix the format

    
>    3. I have also seen two additional formats.

>     What does CVTARC do to these ?

	Fixes them just fine.