ZOO 2.01 -- MS-DOS BINARY DISTRIBUTION This package contains version 2.01 of the Zoo archive program, along with the supporting utilities Fiz 2.0 and Stuff 1.0. REDISTRIBUTION Because all the programs in this package support one another, and because it is nearly impossible to use them properly without the user manuals, I strongly recommend that everything in this package be distributed together. If necessary you can distribute the executable programs separately, but you should in that case be sure to warn the recipient that there is more, and how and where to get it. CONTENTS OF THIS PACKAGE In addition to the file "readme.1st", which you are reading, the following files are included in this package. File sizes, dates, times, and CRC values (as found in a zoo archive with the "zoo lC" command) are shown below. Length Date Time CRC Filename -------- --------- -------- ---- ---------- 10716 31 Jan 88 23:40:04 b60f fiz.exe 4132 13 Feb 88 15:09:12 cf97 fiz.man 8427 13 Feb 88 15:08:48 53a3 stuff.doc 10738 6 Feb 88 20:03:28 cfa4 stuff.exe 40078 25 Aug 88 18:08:18 27db zoo.exe 52640 25 Aug 88 16:26:42 cfe9 zoo.man fiz.exe: ------- Fiz 2.0, the Fix Zoo utility. This program helps recover data from damaged zoo archives. The existence of fiz.exe does not indicate that zoo archives are easily damaged (they are not, and they are immune to trailing garbage added by some file transfer protocols). But should a transmission error result in a corrupted download of a zoo archive, you will likely be able to recover the data from most or all of the undamaged parts of the damaged archive. fiz.man: ------- The user manual for Fiz. stuff.exe: --------- Stuff 1.0, a file finder for use with Zoo 2.01. This program will generate a list of pathnames based on selection criteria that you decide. The output may be fed to Zoo 2.01 through a pipe to allow you to archive one or more subdirectory hierarchies. Later, the resulting zoo archive can be extracted to recreate the original subdirectory hierarchy. stuff.doc: --------- The user manual for Stuff 1.0. zoo.exe: ------- Zoo 2.01, a file archiving program. Currently zoo is available in binary form for AmigaDOS and MS-DOS and in C source form for MS-DOS, VAX/VMS, and **IX and look-alike systems. zoo.man: ------- The user manual for zoo 2.01. OTHER PROGRAMS In addition to Zoo, Stuff, and Fiz, which are included in this package, other supporting programs that you may find useful are: Sez 2.3: (Self-Extracting Zoo) This program will convert any Zoo archive to self-extracting form in a few seconds. Self-extraction overhead is less than 2500 bytes, and the self-extracting archive will recreate the original contents of the zoo archive when executed on any MS-DOS system. These self-extracting archives can be extracted on non-MS-DOS systems too with the help of Fiz 2.0 and Zoo 2.01. Looz 2.1: (Ooz with List) This program will extract, list, and execute files from zoo archives on any MS-DOS system. As far as I can tell, Looz is the only program in existence for MS-DOS systems that allows you to have executable programs stored in compressed form and execute them by extracting directly into memory, with no net memory penalty, no need for any temproary disk space, and with the usual MS-DOS command-line arguments, I/O redirection, and piping fully available. There are substantial savings in disk space due to avoiding fragmentation if many small EXE or COM programs are stored in a zoo archive. For example, if you have 20 tiny programs on a hard disk, each 100 bytes long, you will typically tie up 40 kilobytes of disk space (160 kilobytes under some earlier versions of MS-DOS). Stored in a Zoo archive, these programs will take up about 4 kilobytes or less; if stored uncompressed, execution can still be virtually instantaneous. AVAILABILITY OF SOURCE CODE As I write this, it is planned that the portable C source code for Zoo 2.01 will be posted to Usenet and uploaded to GEnie's IBM PC RoundTable in the next few weeks. I will separately be releasing an MS-DOS support package at about the same time. In conjunction with the portable C source code, this package will allow recompilation under MS-DOS using Turbo C version 1.0. It will include all the assembly language routines that are currently used for speed. COPYRIGHT The source distribution will contain a detailed copyright notice. So long as you distribute Zoo 2.01 at no charge (or at an hourly telecommunications charge not exceeding $8.00 per hour during evening hours at 1200 bps), and do not distribute it as part of a package over which you claim a compilation copyright or other right to restrict redistribution of those contents of the package that you do not own, you should be safe. But if you're in the business of collecting free software written by others and attempting to restrict its further distribution, this copyright policy will seriously hinder your including Zoo 2.01 in your collection. The above is just a summary. The full text of the copyright notice as found in the source distribution takes precedence if there are any discrepencies. Also note that currently binary distributions of all supporting utilities (Fiz, Looz, Stuff, Sez) and many earlier versions of Zoo are fully in the public domain. -- Rahul Dhesi 1988/08/25