1atool - Introduction
2====================
3
4atool is a script for managing file archives of various types (tar,
5tar+gzip, zip etc).
6
7The main command is aunpack which extracts files from an archive. Did you
8ever extract files from an archive, not checking whether the files were
9located in a subdirectory or in the top directory of the archive, resulting
10in files scattered all over the place? aunpack overcomes this problem by
11first extracting to a new directory. If there was only a single file in the
12archive, that file is moved to the original directory. aunpack also
13prevents local files from being overwritten by mistake.
14
15The other commands provided are apack (to create archives), als (to list
16files in archives), and acat (to extract files to standard out). As atool
17invokes external programs to handle the archives, not all commands may be
18supported for a certain type of archives.
19
20atool identifies archives by their file extension. Sometimes this is not
21possible - for instance rar archives usually have varying numeric file
22extensions. In those cases when atool can't identify the format, file is
23used instead. (atool can be configured not to use file.)
24
25atool is written in Perl by Oskar Liljeblad and is free software (GNU
26General Public License).
27
28Copyright and License
29=====================
30
31atool is Copyright (C) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008,
322009, 2011 Oskar Liljeblad
33
34This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
35under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
36Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option)
37any later version.
38
39This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
40ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
41FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for
42more details.
43
44You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
45with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51
46Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
47
48The source code of this project may contain files from other projects, and
49files generated by other projects, including:
50
51 * GNU Autoconf (http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/)
52
53Such files are licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License
54or a license compatible with the GNU GPL (as listed on
55http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html). See each file for copyright
56details.
57
58Requirements
59============
60
61The following programs are required to run atool:
62
63 * Perl 5.004 or later
64
65   atool is written in Perl. The modules File::Spec, File::Basename,
66   Getopt::Long and POSIX must be available (they probably are by default).
67
68   Web site: http://www.perl.org/
69
70   Debian package: perl
71
72The following programs are optional for running atool:
73
74 * file
75
76   file is used to determine file types, and is found in most unices by
77   default. This program is necessary unless you choose to disable the
78   use_file option.
79
80   Web site: ftp://ftp.astron.com/pub/file/
81
82   Debian package: file
83
84 * tar (GNU tar)
85
86   tar is required if you want to use atool with tar archives.
87   Implementations other than GNU's will work with atool as well, but see
88   the Installation section below if you don't use GNU tar 1.13.18 or
89   later.
90
91   Web site: http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/tar.html
92
93   Debian package: tar
94
95 * gzip (GNU zip)
96
97   gzip is required if you want to use atool with gzip compressed archives.
98
99   Web site: http://www.gzip.org/
100
101   Debian package: gzip
102
103 * bzip
104
105   bzip is required if you want to use atool with bzip compressed archives.
106   Note that bzip is obsoleted by bzip2.
107
108 * bzip2
109
110   bzip2 is required if you want to use atool with bzip2 compressed
111   archives.
112
113   Web site: http://www.bzip.org/
114
115   Debian package: bzip2
116
117 * pbzip2
118
119   pbzip2 is required if you want to use atool with bzip2 compressed
120   archives and utilize parallel processing.
121
122   Web site: http://compression.ca/pbzip2/
123
124   Debian package: pbzip2
125
126 * lzip
127
128   lzip is required if you want to use atool with lzip compressed archives.
129
130   Web site: http://lzip.nongnu.org/lzip.html
131
132   Debian package: lzip
133
134 * plzip
135
136   plzip is required if you want to use atool with lzip compressed archives
137   and utilize parallel processing.
138
139   Web site: http://lzip.nongnu.org/plzip.html
140
141   Debian package (not in stable as of 2012-02-07): plzip
142
143 * lzop
144
145   lzop is required if you want to use atool with lzop compressed archives.
146
147   Web site: http://www.lzop.org/
148
149   Debian package: lzop
150
151 * LZMA
152
153   LZMA is required if you want to use atool with lzma compressed archives.
154
155   Web site: http://www.7-zip.org/sdk.html
156
157 * zip/unzip (Info-ZIP Zip/Unzip)
158
159   Zip is required if you want to use atool with zip archives.
160   Implementations other than Info-ZIP's might work with atool as well.
161
162   Web site: http://www.info-zip.org
163
164   Debian packages: zip, unzip
165
166 * rar (Eugene Roshal's RAR and UnRAR)
167
168   RAR is required if you want to use atool with rar archives.
169   Implementations other than Eugene Roshal's might work with atool as
170   well.
171
172   Web site: http://www.rarsoft.com/
173
174   Debian packages: rar, unrar
175
176 * lha (LHa for UNIX)
177
178   LHa is required if you want to use atool with lha, lharc and similar
179   archives.
180
181   Web site: http://www.infor.kanazawa-it.ac.jp/~ishii/lhaunix/
182
183   Debian package: lha
184
185 * unace (UnAce for Linux)
186
187   UnAce is required if you want to use atool with ace archives.
188
189   Web site: http://www.winace.com
190
191   Debian package: unace
192
193 * arj
194
195   Arj is required if you want to use atool with arj archives.
196
197   Web site: http://arj.sourceforge.net
198
199   Debian package: arj
200
201 * Red Hat Package Manager
202
203   The Red Hat Package Manager is required if you want to use atool with
204   rpm archives.
205
206   Web site: http://www.rpm.org/
207
208   Debian package: rpm
209
210 * cpio (GNU cpio)
211
212   cpio is required if you want to use atool with cpio archives. Other
213   implmentations than GNU's might work as well.
214
215   Web site: http://www.gnu.org/software/cpio/
216
217   Debian package: cpio
218
219 * arc
220
221   arc is required if you want to use atool with ARC archives (all commands
222   supported).
223
224   Web site: http://sources.isc.org/archiver/arc-5.21.txt
225
226   Debian package: arc
227
228 * nomarch
229
230   nomarch is required if you want to use atool to list and extract files
231   from ARC archives.
232
233   Web site: http://rus.members.beeb.net/nomarch.html
234
235   Debian package: nomarch
236
237 * p7zip
238
239   p7zip is required if you want to use atool with 7z archives.
240
241   Web site: http://p7zip.sourceforge.net/
242
243   Debian package: p7zip
244
245 * unalz
246
247   unalz is required if you want to use atool with alzip archives.
248
249   Web site: http://www.kipple.pe.kr/win/unalz/
250
251   Debian package: unalz
252
253Building
254========
255
256To build all files, simply run
257
258   ./configure
259
260The configure script accepts a few options - use the following command to
261show them:
262
263   ./configure --help
264
265Installation
266============
267
268Installing atool is a matter of copying the atool file to some appropriate
269directory for executable files, usually /usr/local/bin. After that,
270symbolic links for apack, aunpack, als and acat to atool should be created
271in the same directory.
272
273All this can be done automaticly by running
274
275   make install
276
277It is possible to create a system wide configuration file overriding
278default values found in the top of the atool script (see below).
279
280Usage and Configuration
281=======================
282
283A list of options that atool accepts can be displayed by running atool with
284the --help option:
285
286   atool --help
287
288Please see the manual page for atool for full use and configuration
289information. This document can usually be viewed this way:
290
291   man ./atool.1
292
293Supported formats
294=================
295
296Please see the supplied manual page, as described above.
297
298Homepage
299========
300
301Web site and file area for atool is hosted on Savannah:
302
303   http://www.nongnu.org/atool/
304
305The latest version of atool should always be available on this site.
306
307Feedback
308========
309
310The author of atool and this document, Oskar Liljeblad, can be reached by
311e-mail:
312
313   oskar@osk.mine.nu (mailto:oskar@osk.mine.nu)
314
315Please send bug reports, suggestions, ideas or comments in general to me -
316I would like to hear from you if you like (or don't like) atool.
317
318Known bugs and missing features
319===============================
320
321Please see the KNOWN BUGS section of the atool.1 manual page.
322
323Things to do
324============
325
326Please see the TODO document.
327
328-
329