Lharc--killer archiver from Japan (Was: Re: uncompress and tar)

[Dan Kogai]

In article <6420 at star.cs.vu.nl> maart at cs.vu.nl (Maarten Litmaath) writes:
>In article <23157 at adm.BRL.MIL>,
>	jones at mips1.uqam.ca (Jones*Peter) writes:
>[...]
>)#! /bin/csh/ -vxf
>)uncompress -c $1.'tar'  | tar xtopvwf - <-
>                               ^^        ^^
>                               ^^        What's this?
>                               ^^
>                               On SunOS 4.0.3c only one of `x' and `t'
>                               is allowed; anyway `x' is intended here.
>
>It's a bug in tar: it sends the confirmation message to stdout (!) and
>reads the user input from stdin (!)...  :-(
>In both cases tar should have opened /dev/tty.
>Peter, it seems you're stuck with the temp file if you want to use the
>`w' option.

	How about using a utility that does tar and compress at the same time?
There's a utility called "lharc".  It's originally developped in NEC PC9801
computer--A Dos machine but not IBM PC compatible--dominating Japanese PC
market.  And it's ported to UNIX.  Lharc'ed file is interchangeable to
DOS and UNIX and Mac.  Mac version is horrible and it still has miles to go
to reach the level of Stuffit but I found UNIX version very useful.
I'll show you some example here:

Dan at web-3a[114]:~/src > ll lharc
total 136
-rw-r--r--  1 c60c-3cf c60c-stf     2800 Mar 15 17:53 Install
-rw-r--r--  1 c60c-3cf c60c-stf     3091 Mar 15 17:51 Makefile
-rw-r--r--  1 c60c-3cf c60c-stf     1229 Mar 15 17:45 READ.ME
-rw-r--r--  1 c60c-3cf c60c-stf    13097 Mar 15 17:46 lhadd.c
-rw-r--r--  1 c60c-3cf c60c-stf    29159 Mar 15 17:46 lharc.c
-rw-r--r--  1 c60c-3cf c60c-stf    11521 Mar 15 17:46 lharc.doc
-rw-r--r--  1 c60c-3cf c60c-stf     9250 Mar 15 17:46 lharc.h
-rw-r--r--  1 c60c-3cf c60c-stf     8016 Mar 15 17:45 lharc.man
-rw-r--r--  1 c60c-3cf c60c-stf     6783 Mar 15 17:45 lharc.n
-rw-r--r--  1 c60c-3cf c60c-stf     2010 Mar 15 17:46 lhdir.c
-rw-r--r--  1 c60c-3cf c60c-stf      886 Mar 15 17:46 lhdir.h
-rw-r--r--  1 c60c-3cf c60c-stf     6154 Mar 15 17:46 lhext.c
-rw-r--r--  1 c60c-3cf c60c-stf     6504 Mar 15 17:46 lhio.c
-rw-r--r--  1 c60c-3cf c60c-stf     1483 Mar 15 17:46 lhio.h
-rw-r--r--  1 c60c-3cf c60c-stf     6672 Mar 15 17:46 lhlist.c
-rw-r--r--  1 c60c-3cf c60c-stf    22476 Mar 15 17:46 lzhuf.c
Dan at web-3a[115]:~/src > ll lharc.*
-rw-r--r--  1 c60c-3cf c60c-stf    44592 May  2 15:20 lharc.lzh
-rw-r--r--  1 c60c-3cf c60c-stf    59377 May  2 15:21 lharc.tar.Z

	So not only is lharc combines tar and compress but also it compresses
more.  The only thing I found lharc inferior to lharc is speed and that's
not very significant (It was slow on a Mac though).  I usually use
it on background with q(uiet) option.
	The only problem is its manpage is available only in Japanese so far.
I'm so impressed that I'm planning to translate manpage and distribute it
in the U.S, too, a couple of people are already asking for source.
But brief READ.ME file is in English so let me include it here.

								-*- Text -*-

LHarc UNIX V1.00

	This is FREEWARE.

	Please send problems to me.

	Sorry, lharc.doc file are written in JAPANESE (Shift-JIS KANJI)

						Thank you.

					1989.09.19  Yooichi.Tagawa
						Nikkei-MIX ID: y.tagawa
------------------------------------------------------------------------

HOW TO USE:
	lharc {axevludmcp}[qvnftg] archive_file [files or directories...]

COMMAND:
	KEY	MEANS				Like as (UNIX ar command)
	--- ------------------------------	------------------------------
	a    Append to archive.			  ar r AFILE files...
	x,e  EXtract from archive.		  ar x AFILE [files...]
	v,l  View/List archive contents.	  ar t AFILE [files...]
	u    append newer files to archive.	  ar ru AFILE files...
	d    Delete from archive.		  ar d AFILE files...
	m    Move to archive.			  ar m AFILE files...
	c    re-construct new archive file.	  rm AFILE; ar r AFILE files...
	p    Print to STANDARD-OUTPUT		  ar p AFILE [files...]


OPTIONS:
	q	quiet
	v	verbsoe
	n	no execute (debugging option)
	f	force (over write at extract)
	t	text-mode (this is provisional option)
	g	generate [generic] format (this is provisional option too)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I'd like to go for it as soon as I get the approval of Mr. Yooichi
Tagawa.  But the problem is that he seems to have no internet E-mail address.
So I crosspost this to fj.question.misc so ANY Japanese reader can mail me
any info about him.  So anyone know about him please E-mail me at the
address in my signature.  Thank you in advance.
	IF YOU ARE TOO INSATIABLE TO WAIT, THE SOURCE IS AVAILABLE VIA
ANONYMOUS FTP TO: utsun.u.u-tokyo.ac.jp (IP address 133.11.7.250).  Enjoy!

---
##################  Dan The "I grok therefore I am God" Man
+ ____  __  __   +  (Aka Dan Kogai)
+     ||__||__|  +  E-mail:     dankg at ocf.berkeley.edu
+ ____| ______   +  Voice:      415-549-6111
+ |     |__|__|  +  USnail:     1730 Laloma Berkeley, CA 94709
+ |___  |__|__|  +              U.S.A
+     |____|____ +  Disclaimer: I'd rather be blackmailed for my long .sig
+   \_|    |     +              than give up my cool name in Kanji. And my
+ <- THE MAN  -> +              citizenship of People's Republic o' Berkeley
##################              has nothing 2 do w/ whatever I post, ThanQ.