ARQ v0.02 - 14 July 1993 4DOS command-line shell for multiple archivers By Roger Burton-West Copying ARQ is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public Licence, a copy of which is included. In brief, this states that ARQ is freely distributable, subject only to the condition that if you make a modified version and choose to distribute it, you must make it freely distributable as well. See the file COPYING for details. ARQ is copyright 1993 by Roger Burton-West. Why ARQ? ARQ is designed for those people who, like me, use several different archivers on a regular basis. ARQ allows you to use the same syntax to issue commands to any archiver you have available. It also provides a convenient short-cut for archivers without configuration files. I've used programs like GUS and PKBTM, but they were orientated towards file extraction; I wanted to retain the majority of the archiver command set, especially the hard-to-remember commands such as comment addition. Use The ARQ syntax is simple: ARQ command archive (files) The archive parameter should include the extension; otherwise this will be assumed to be ARJ. If the files parameter is omitted, it defaults to *.*. Command should be one of: a Add files to archive m Move files to archive x Extract files from archive d Delete files from archive l Short list of archive contents v Long list of archive contents t Test archive integrity c Add comment file to archive s Create self-extractor (large model) s1 Create self-extractor (small model) ARQ issues the appropriate command to the archiver, based on the file extension. Note that self-extracting archives cannot be handled under ARQ, as there is no way of telling which archiver should be used. a Add files to archive m Move files to archive Adds the named files to the archive; m will delete files after they have been added. If the archiver supports subdirectories, these will also be searched. x Extract files from archive Extracts the named files from the archive. d Delete files from archive Deletes the named files from the archive. Not available for all archivers. l Short list of archive contents Lists the contents of the archive in a brief mode. v Long list of archive contents Lists the contents of the archive in a longer mode. (Some archivers only have one list mode, in which case this command duplicates the effects of "l".) t Test archive integrity Tests the files in the archive for corruption. Not available for all archivers. c Add comment file to archive Adds the named file as an ANSI comment. Not available for all archivers; archivers which require the comment to be typed in are not supported. s Create self-extractor (large model) Converts the archive into a self-extracting .EXE file. Not available for all archivers. Hyper is a special case; the program hyper.exe must be available in the current working directory. s1 Create self-extractor (small model) Converts the archive into a self-extracting .EXE file, using the small model code. Not available for all archivers. (Some archivers only have one self-extractor model, in which case this command duplicates the effects of "s".) Limitations ARQ currently supports the following archivers: Arj, PKZip, Arc, LHA, PAK, Zoo, Hyper, DWC, Larc, HPack, HA, AR, MD, Sqz and Hap; it also supports Vernon Buerg's utilities for LBR library files. ARQ expects 4DOS' command-separation character to be ^. ARQ cannot handle self-extracting archives, because it detects the archive type by the file extension. ARQ does not support file compressors such as GZip or COMP430. Future versions may include a simulated file-deletion command and expanded control over the archiver. If you have an archiver which is not supported by ARQ, please let me know where to find it - I'm always interested in adding to the collection.