Conference hydra::amiga_v1

>    	Can someone explain ARC? I see references to de_arcing, and
>    found an arc.exe which doesn't accept any arguments. Where does
>    it run, on what, and how?
    
Hi Bob, here's a brief description:  ARC is short for ARChive.  It is much
like the VAX Librarian.  An archive file contains one or more smaller files
in compressed formats for ease in uploading/downloading.  The ARC.EXE is
used to extract files from the archive or add files into it.

The .ARC files you see on the E-net can be downloaded to your Amiga and then
de-arced there to extract the files from the arc file.  ARC on the VAX seems
to like only certain formats of archive files (Stream_LF) which is also the
format that XMODEM likes.

If you prefer to use Kermit, there is a program somewhere called CVTARC that
converts a file between XMODEM and Kermit formats.

Sorry I'm not more descriptive, but I've to run for now.  If this isn't clear,
just keep on askin'!!!

								...richard

    
    re: .0
    
    To get ARC to accept arguments on the vax it has to be defined as
    follows:
    
    $ ARG :== $yourdisk:[yourdirectory]ARC.EXE
              ^
              +---notice the dollar sign!

    I have a related question.  Is there any way to get an ARC file in RAM:
    de-ARCed onto DF1: without first copying the ARC file to DF1: or de-ARCing
    into RAM: first?  I *REALLY* want to be able to say:

	>ARC <someswitch> FOO.ARC DF1:

    and have it mean: "Take the arc file from here and de-ARC the entire thing
    onto DF1:.  I already ran into the problem with the INTERCEPTOR demo that
    both the ARC file and the de-ARCed result would not fit onto DF1:.  So
    I was forced to de-ARC the thing in RAM: first.  If I'd had only 512K,
    I would not have been able to complete the de-ARC.

    OK, tell me I'm dreaming and that if I want a feature like that, I should
    get the ARC sources and write it myself.  Or enlighten me about some feature
    in ARC of which I am unaware.

    regards,
    -jim

re:	.3

This one I know (since I do it all the time):

	1) Put the ARC file in RAM: (or VD0: which I prefer).
	2) CD to the directory you want it in (e.g. CD DF0:)
	3) Do the arc (arc x ram:foo)

It ALWAYS writes into your current directory... 

dave

re .-1

>	1) Put the ARC file in RAM: (or VD0: which I prefer).

Yep, that's what I do too.  In fact, I prefer downloading the .ARC file directly
to the RAM disk and then pop back to the CLI, CD to destination, and de-arc it.

						...richard

    Here's a neat one that I use all the time. It ALWAYS "works for
    me" :')   Don't ask me what made me try it but here it is.
    
    Put the .ARC file in RAM:
    (if there is room put ARC there also)
    CD to RAM:
    	Assuming that ARC is either in RAM: or your current path.. ussue...
    ARC X arcfilename df1:#?
    
    	The #? is the only way I was able to get this to work!
    
    Good Luck.
    bw
    

    Arc is just looking for an AmigaDOS pattern match
      "ARC e foo.arc df1:" is just saying "give me all
       files that match a null".  Seems strange that it 
       doesn't work like ARC without the the "df1".
    
      "ARC e foo.arc df1:#?" says "give me all files"
    
      you can even do "ARC e foo.arc df1:#?.txt" to get all *.txt files
    
      -dave

    Ah, thank you to the last few replies.  The solution uncovers my
    unconscious VMS bias.  Obviously, I was assuming that the command:

	>ARC E FOO.ARC DF1:

    was equivalent to the command:

	>ARC E FOO.ARC DF1:#?

    WRONG!!  My thanks to everyone who set me straight.  Now I won't worry
    about not having disk and ARC space available at the same time.

    regards,
    -jim