README
1nomarch 1.4 - extract old `.arc' archives.
2Copyright (C) 2001-2006 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
22nomarch lists/extracts/tests `.arc' archives. (It also handles `.ark'
23files, they're exactly the same.) This is a *very* outdated file
24format which should never be used for anything new, but unfortunately,
25you can still run into it every so often (especially if you mess about
26with old CP/M stuff). So nomarch is handy as a way to deal with these
27files.
28
29For more on how nomarch works and how to use it, do `man nomarch' once
30it's installed.
31
32
33Installation
34------------
35
36Check the Makefile is ok (it should be), then do `make' and (as root)
37`make install'.
38
39
40Why not just use `arc'?
41-----------------------
42
43`arc' is (or certainly *used* to be) non-Free. For a while this didn't
44annoy me that much, and I put up with using it because there wasn't
45really anything else I could use. But once I realised that I could
46probably write my own extraction program, and that some old .arc files
47aren't likely to go away (for example, the Walnut Creek CP/M CD-ROM
48contains well over a thousand), I thought I'd try writing something a
49bit more useful than a picture viewer for once. :-)
50
51
52Why the name?
53-------------
54
55Since there are at least two different programs called `unarc' already
56(one is an old CP/M program, the other isn't .arc-related), I had to
57pick something a bit more obscure. I considered `arcbgon', but I
58thought that was a little tacky. :-) When I noticed that there was a
59word looking so similar to `no more arc', I went with that instead,
60even if the mundane meaning is a little, uh, grandiose...
61
62(Though it looks like it might also be Spanish for `filename' or
63something, which could be a bit weird. Oh well.)
64
65
66Contacting me
67-------------
68
69You can email me at rus@svgalib.org.
70
71
72Share and enjoy!
73
74-Rus.
75