1lbrate 1.1 - extract/decompress CP/M LBR archives. 2Copyright (C) 2001 Russell Marks. 3 4This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify 5it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by 6the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at 7your option) any later version. 8 9This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but 10WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of 11MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU 12General Public License for more details. 13 14You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License 15along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software 16Foundation, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. 17 18 19Description 20----------- 21 22lbrate extracts/decompresses files from the CP/M LBR format. (It can 23also list and test such archives.) It does this in an `unzip'-like 24manner, mostly hiding the details of individually compressed and 25renamed files, and transparently deals with the required 26decompression/renaming. 27 28(It can also work on CP/M-ish compressed files (`squeezed', etc.) 29outside of such archives, treating them as if they were really 30single-member LBRs.) 31 32For more on how lbrate works and how to use it, do `man lbrate' once 33it's installed. You might also want to check the "FILENAME ISSUES" 34section if the description sounded a bit confusing... :-) 35 36 37Installation 38------------ 39 40Check the Makefile is ok (it should be), then do `make' and (as root) 41`make install'. 42 43 44Why not just use `lar', `xusq', and `uncr'? 45------------------------------------------- 46 47Firstly, all previous decompressors that I'm aware of for the CP/M 48"Q", "Z", and "Y" compression types (including both the original CP/M 49tools and `xusq'/`uncr') have been non-Free. This is less than ideal 50IMHO. 51 52That apart, here are some practical reasons: 53 54- lbrate does the whole process in one. Admittedly you could script up 55 something similar which used lar/xusq/uncr (I used to use something 56 like this myself), but it wouldn't really work as well. 57 58- lbrate can extract "Y" type (LZH) compressed files, both 1.x and 2.x 59 versions. I believe it's the first non-CP/M program to support this 60 format. 61 62- lbrate supports extracting version 1.x crunched files, which `uncr' 63 doesn't. 64 65- lar doesn't check LBR CRCs, and therefore can't test the integrity 66 of LBRs. 67 68 69Who uses LBR files, anyway? 70--------------------------- 71 72Even if no-one were ever to create a new LBR file, there's still a 73*lot* of existing CP/M software that is only available in this format. 74If you're going to use CP/M stuff, you pretty much have to be able to 75read LBRs (and .arc/.ark files, which are extractable with `nomarch'). 76For example, the Walnut Creek CP/M CD contains well over 4000 LBR 77archives. 78 79 80What about Unisys? 81------------------ 82 83lbrate is capable of reading LZW-compressed files (`crunched' files 84use LZW), so it has the same legal status as a GIF decoder. Even in 85their current set-lawyers-to-kill state, I don't think Unisys have a 86problem with programs which only *read* LZW. Their patent expires soon 87anyway, and once that happens we can all just point at them and laugh. 88I know I will. :-) 89 90As for other patents, LZH compression is covered by US patent no. 914,906,991 (which seems to claim all tree-using LZ77), but the patent 92does not claim any form of decompression. Since lbrate only 93decompresses, it should be ok. 94 95 96Is readlzh.c really GPL? 97------------------------ 98 99Yes - the original author gave explicit permission for me to do this. 100For the background, read the comment at the top of readlzh.c, and see 101lzhuf-post.txt. 102 103 104Contacting me 105------------- 106 107You can email me at rus@svgalib.org. 108 109 110Share and enjoy! 111 112-Rus. 113