         General information          -------------------   O VMSTAR  is  a  TAR  reader/writer  for  VMS.  It can read archives ("tarfiles") O created  by  the Un*x command "tar" and also create such archives. Tarfiles can " be disk files or directly on tape.  ? VMSTAR is based on the TAR2VMS and VMS2TAR programs written by:   
 Sid Penstone,  VLSI Group, % Department of Electrical Engineering,  Queen's University, ! Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7L3N6  phone (613) 545-2925  3 BITNET:         PENSTONE@QUCDNEE1       (Preferred) ;                 PENSTONE@QUCDN  (If the other doesn't work)     The extra work has been done by:   Alain Fauconnet B SIM/INSERM U194         (complete address at the end of this file) PARIS - FRANCE   Bitnet: FAUCONNE@FRSIM51  O TAR2VMS and VMS2TAR have been merged into a  single  program.  I  made  several O improvements, bug fixes and message cleanup. For those  who  know  TAR2VMS  and " VMS2TAR, the main differences are:  M - everything is now in a single program that can be used for extracting files I from tar archives, listing the contents of tar archives or creating them.   L - VMSTAR now accepts a `f tarfile' option to explicitely specify the tarfile3 name (either a VMS file name or a VMS device name).   E - if this option is not used, the logical name "$TAPE" is translated.   , - checksums are verified at file extraction.  M - VMSTAR will extract files from archives as VMS rfm=stream_lf, rat=cr files, I except if new option `b' is specified. In this case, extracted files ared M created as rfm=fixed, mrs=512, rat=none i.e. suitable for compressed files to / be decompressed using LZDCMP or for VMS images.   L - VMSTAR has a more Un*x-like syntax, if several file names are specified asO command line parameters they must be separated by spaces (not commas) and there ) is not context propagation "a la BACKUP".   O - VMSTAR allows VMS-style wildcarded strings for Un*x-style file  names  to  be 4 specified when extracting from a tar archive, e.g. :  $ $ tar xvf foo.tar */source/*/sa%%%.c  I - VMSTAR will attempt to create relative tar archives i.e. archives where H filenames are recorded as "./foo/bar/baz" whenever possible. This can beJ specifically avoided by having a device name in file name argument, e.g. :  $ $ tar cvf foo.tar DISK$USERS[...]*.c  8 or specifying an absolute VMS file specification, e.g. :   $ tar cvf foo.tar [SMITH.C...]  N - VMSTAR will handle tar archives which when restored would create more than 8O levels of directories (the X11 distribution from MIT for instance !). Excessive 2 levels of directories will be resolved as follows:  A d1/d2/d3/d4/d5/d6/d7/d8/d9/foo -> [D1.D2.D3.D4.D5.D6.D7.D8$D9]FOO   M - VMSTAR no longer requires the creation of an intermediate scratch file when $ archiving text files as VMS2TAR did.  L - VMSTAR does *not* allow to read tarfiles past the EOF mark as TAR2VMS did.  O - the `w' option (same as "/CONFIRM" for VMS commands) has been implemented for % create archive and extract functions.   O - VMSTAR has a VMS help file (VMSTAR.HLP) that can be added to your HELPLIB.HLB  to provide online help.   E - many other differences, the code has been extensively reworked with O simplification as a goal. This probably caused the introduction of some bugs...     +         Build and installation instructions +         -----------------------------------   % Compile and link VMSTAR.C as follows:    $ CC VMSTAR  $ LINK VMSTAR,SYS$INPUT:/OPT SYS$SHARE:VAXCRTL/SHARE  <CONTROL-Z>   / Define a foreign command symbol in SYLOGIN.COM:    $ VMSTAR :== $ <wherever>VMSTAR   M I used VAX/VMS C V3.1 to build VMSTAR. I have no idea whether it can be built * using other versions or other compilers...  B You can optionally add VMSTAR in your VMS help library as follows:  ? $ LIBRARY/HELP/INSERT SYS$COMMON:[SYSHLP]HELPLIB.HLB VMSTAR.HLP   
         Usage 
         -----   9         tar x|t|c[v][w][b][d][f tarfile] [file [file...]] 2         x - extract from tarfile, create VMS files%         t - type directory of tarfile -         c - create tarfile, archive VMS files B         v - verbose (list names of files being archived/extracted)=         w - wait for confirmation before extracting/archiving L         b - binary mode extract, create (rfm=fixed, rat=none, mrs=512) files,         d - keep trailing dots in file names2         f - specify tarfile name, default is $TAPEH         file - space-separated list of file names, can include VMS-styleD                string wildcards on extract, can be any VMS file name?                specification (except DECnet) on create archive.     7 Tapes for reading/writing of tarfiles should be mounted  /FOREIGN/RECORD=512/BLOCK=10240    Example:  5 $ MOUNT/FOREIGN/RECORD=512/BLOCK=10240 MUA0: "" $TAPE  $ VMSTAR XV            Restrictions         ------------  O Because of diffrences in the Un*x and VMS filesystems, some files may  fail  to O be correctly  transferred  to/from  the  tarfile.  This  can  be  caused  by  :   J - restrictions in VMS file naming scheme: extra dots in file names will beI mapped to underscores, dummy directory names will be generated if archive K contains more than 8 levels of subdirectories, links are extracted as empty K files containing only a short message "this file is only a link to...", all ' file names are mapped to uppercase etc.   N - restrictions of the Un*x filesystem: tar will only get the latest version ofL a VMS file to enter it into the archive, no trace of the orginal file device name is kept in the archive.  H - VMS strong file typing: VMSTAR can only safely tranfer back and forth M VMS "text" files (rfm=vfc or stream_lf with rat=cr) or VMS fixed size record, 9 512 bytes/record, rat=none files (e.g. .EXE image files). H VMSTAR will skip other file types (this includes .OBJ and library files, they *can't* be archived).   Other restrictions:   O RMS file attributes are lost in the archive process, text files are archived as 9 <record><LF><record><LF>, fixed files are archived as is.   O VMSTAR  will always restore files relative to your current RMS default if names O in  tarfile do not begin by `/'. If file names in tarfile begin with a `/' (bad O practice), an attempt will be made to restore files to the absolute path. There O is currently no way to explicitely specify the target VMS directory where files  should be extracted.  O No  attempt  has  been  made to handle search list as RMS defaults (e.g. SYSTEM % account). Be very careful about that.   O The  current  version  of  VMSTAR  has  *not*  been  fully  tested.  I probably O introduced  many  bugs  not  existing  in  Sid  Penstone's  programs. VMSTAR is O provided "as-is", I cannot guarantee it will do what you want or even what it's O supposed  to  do  but  I'd  like  to hear about it if you have problems. If you O report  a  problem,  don't  bother  with  providing me a fix but *do* try to be - precise on what happened and how it happened.     K +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ K |  Alain ("HAL 1") Fauconnet   Research laboratory in medical informatics | K |  System Manager              (expert systems, NL proc., statistics...)  | K |  SIM/INSERM U194             EARN/Bitnet:       FAUCONNE@FRSIM51        | K |  Faculte de Medecine         VMS PSI Mail: PSI%+208075090517::FAUCONNET | K |  91 Boulevard de l'Hopital   FAX:          (+33) 1-45-86-56-85          | K |  75634 PARIS CEDEX 13 FRANCE PTT net:      (+33) 1-45-85-15-29          | K |  "HAL... open the door, please!" (2001 Space Odyssey)                   | K |  Disclaimer: This is machine-generated random text, no meaning at all.  | K +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ 