Re: [Zutils-bug] Decompressing any file

[Antonio Diaz Diaz]

Hello Axel.

Axel Beckert wrote:
> Count me in for compress'ed files, i.e. those with .Z suffix,
> especially because gzip's zcat is able to do that. -- see my Debian
> bug report above.

Compress'ed files are not suitable for zutils. The compress format is 
not even standardized[1]:

[1]http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/compress.html

"The format of compressed files is unspecified and interchange of such 
files between implementations (including access via unspecified file 
sharing mechanisms) is not required by POSIX.1-2008."


Support for lzma-alone files is being removed from GNU programs. So I do 
not plan to include it in zutils.


> 7zr supports stdin and stdout. From the 7zr man page:
> [...]
> Maybe the following is even more useful for zutils:
>   /usr/bin/p7zip: a gzip like wrapper around 7zr.

I plan to implement a configuration file to let the user choose what 
decompressor use for each format (a parallel version of the 
decompressor, for example). As soon as I find the time to implement it, 
I'll try to include support for 7z files with 7zr/p7zip.


> And from the unzip man page:
>
>        -c     extract  files  to  stdout/screen (``CRT'').

Yes, but unzip does not support stdin. Supporting zip files is 
incompatible with zutils' goal of decompressing on the fly without 
temporary files.


Regards,
Antonio.