ARJ TECHNICAL INFORMATION October 1995 ** IMPORTANT NEWS **************************************************** Some archiver support programs have designed ARJ archive identification schemes that are not reliable. At ARJ 2.39, there are now two versions of the ARJSFX self-extraction module. The 18K byte ARJSFX module supports ARJ-SECURITY. The standard 16K byte ARJSFX module does NOT support ARJ-SECURITY. At ARJ 2.50, there is a new ARJSFXV multiple volume self-extraction module. For the first time, the ARJ-SECURITY fields in the main ARJ header are publicly defined. In addition, the main ARJ header in self-extracting archives MAY NOT immediately follow the EXE module now. ARJ has used the same ARJ archive identification scheme since ARJ 1.0. The following is the algorithm: (1) find the ARJ header id bytes 0x60, 0xEA, (2) read the next two bytes as the header record size in bytes, (3) if the record size is greater than 2600, go back to the header id file position, increment the file position, and go back to step (1), (4) read the header record based upon the previous byte count, (5) calculate the 32 bit CRC of the header record data, (6) read the next four bytes as the actual header record CRC, (7) if the actual CRC does not equal the calculated CRC, go back to the header id file position, increment the file position, and go back to step (1). It is acceptable to start this identification algorithm at a point just after the ARJ self-extraction EXE portion of an archive. This algorithm is fully demonstrated in the UNARJ C source code. A portion of that source code is excerpted at the end of this document. As of ARJ 2.10, the SFX executable modules are pre-compressed using LZEXE. This may cause false indications with EXE scanning programs showing that an ARJ SFX archive is a LZEXE compressed file. Only the executable header module is LZEXE compressed. The actual archive is ARJ compressed, of course. The LZEXE header is modified to avoid extraction by UNLZEXE type programs. UNLZEXE may truncate an ARJ self-extractor of its archive. All SFX modules have an identification string located in the first 1000 characters of the executable. The identification string is "aRJsfX" without the quotes and in the exact case. When using listfiles with ARJ, ARJ support programs should use the "-p" option to ensure that ARJ will only extract the selected files from an ARJ archive. In addition, the listfiles should contain the full pathname information as stored in the ARJ archive. This avoids the problem accessing files that have the same filename but different paths. There is an extended header bug in older versions of ARJ, AV.C and UNARJ.C. The extended header processing in read_header() should skip 4 bytes for the extended header CRC and not 2. This is NOT a current problem as no versions of ARJ use the extended header. ********************************************************************** Modification history: Date Description of modification: -------- ------------------------------------------------------------ 07/07/95 Added information about SFX id string. 11/03/94 Improved SFX identification information. 01/21/94 Added find_header() routine. 03/17/93 Added information about ARJSFX change. 02/17/93 Added description of ARJ security fields. Added archive date-modified field. 12/03/91 Added BACKUP flag to header arj flags. 11/21/91 Described the two types of headers separately. 11/11/91 Added information about the change in text mode processing. 06/28/91 Added several new HOST OS numbers. 05/19/91 Improved the description of extended header processing. 05/11/91 Simplified this document. Added volume label type. 03/11/91 Added directory file type. 02/23/91 Added more comments. 01/10/91 Corrected timestamp description and header order of file mode. 10/30/90 Corrected values of flags in ARJ flags. ARJ archives contains two types of header blocks: Archive main header - This is located at the head of the archive Local file header - This is located before each archived file Structure of main header (low order byte first): Bytes Description ----- ------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 header id (main and local file) = 0x60 0xEA 2 basic header size (from 'first_hdr_size' thru 'comment' below) = first_hdr_size + strlen(filename) + 1 + strlen(comment) + 1 = 0 if end of archive maximum header size is 2600 1 first_hdr_size (size up to and including 'extra data') 1 archiver version number 1 minimum archiver version to extract 1 host OS (0 = MSDOS, 1 = PRIMOS, 2 = UNIX, 3 = AMIGA, 4 = MAC-OS) (5 = OS/2, 6 = APPLE GS, 7 = ATARI ST, 8 = NEXT) (9 = VAX VMS) 1 arj flags (0x01 = NOT USED) (0x02 = OLD_SECURED_FLAG) (0x04 = VOLUME_FLAG) indicates presence of succeeding volume (0x08 = NOT USED) (0x10 = PATHSYM_FLAG) indicates archive name translated ("\" changed to "/") (0x20 = BACKUP_FLAG) indicates backup type archive (0x40 = SECURED_FLAG) 1 security version (2 = current) 1 file type (must equal 2) 1 reserved 4 date time when original archive was created 4 date time when archive was last modified 4 archive size (currently used only for secured archives) 4 security envelope file position 2 filespec position in filename 2 length in bytes of security envelope data 2 (currently not used) ? (currently none) ? filename of archive when created (null-terminated string) ? archive comment (null-terminated string) 4 basic header CRC 2 1st extended header size (0 if none) ? 1st extended header (currently not used) 4 1st extended header's CRC (not present when 0 extended header size) Structure of local file header (low order byte first): Bytes Description ----- ------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 header id (main and local file) = 0x60 0xEA 2 basic header size (from 'first_hdr_size' thru 'comment' below) = first_hdr_size + strlen(filename) + 1 + strlen(comment) + 1 = 0 if end of archive maximum header size is 2600 1 first_hdr_size (size up to and including 'extra data') 1 archiver version number 1 minimum archiver version to extract 1 host OS (0 = MSDOS, 1 = PRIMOS, 2 = UNIX, 3 = AMIGA, 4 = MAC-OS) (5 = OS/2, 6 = APPLE GS, 7 = ATARI ST, 8 = NEXT) (9 = VAX VMS) 1 arj flags (0x01 = GARBLED_FLAG) indicates passworded file (0x02 = NOT USED) (0x04 = VOLUME_FLAG) indicates continued file to next volume (file is split) (0x08 = EXTFILE_FLAG) indicates file starting position field (for split files) (0x10 = PATHSYM_FLAG) indicates filename translated ("\" changed to "/") (0x20 = BACKUP_FLAG) indicates file marked as backup 1 method (0 = stored, 1 = compressed most ... 4 compressed fastest) 1 file type (0 = binary, 1 = 7-bit text) (3 = directory, 4 = volume label) 1 reserved 4 date time modified 4 compressed size 4 original size (this will be different for text mode compression) 4 original file's CRC 2 filespec position in filename 2 file access mode 2 host data (currently not used) ? extra data 4 bytes for extended file starting position when used (these bytes are present when EXTFILE_FLAG is set). 0 bytes otherwise. ? filename (null-terminated string) ? comment (null-terminated string) 4 basic header CRC 2 1st extended header size (0 if none) ? 1st extended header (currently not used) 4 1st extended header's CRC (not present when 0 extended header size) ... ? compressed file Time stamp format: 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 |<---- year-1980 --->|<- month ->|<--- day ---->| 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 |<--- hour --->|<---- minute --->|<- second/2 ->| Routine to find an ARJ Header record: long find_header(FILE *fd) { long arcpos, lastpos; int c; arcpos = file_tell(fd); file_seek(fd, 0L, SEEK_END); lastpos = file_tell(fd) - 2; for ( ; arcpos < lastpos; arcpos++) { file_seek(fd, arcpos, SEEK_SET); c = fget_byte(fd); while (arcpos < lastpos) { if (c != HEADER_ID_LO) /* low order first */ c = fget_byte(fd); else if ((c = fget_byte(fd)) == HEADER_ID_HI) break; arcpos++; } if (arcpos >= lastpos) break; if ((headersize = fget_word(fd)) <= HEADERSIZE_MAX) { crc = CRC_MASK; fread_crc(header, (int) headersize, fd); if ((crc ^ CRC_MASK) == fget_crc(fd)) { file_seek(fd, arcpos, SEEK_SET); return arcpos; } } } return -1; /* could not find a valid header */ } end of document