unzipsfx - extraction (SFX) program. Append a ZIP archive to it to make a self-extracting archive bundle.
name_of_unzipsfx+archive_bundle [ unzip_options ] [ member ... ]
UNZIPSFX(1) General Commands Manual UNZIPSFX(1)
NAME
unzipsfx - self-extraction (SFX) program. Append a ZIP archive to it
to make a self-extracting archive bundle.
SYNOPSIS
name_of_unzipsfx+archive_bundle [ unzip_options ] [ member ... ]
DESCRIPTION
UnZipSFX is a special edition of UnZip which is designed to be attached
to the beginning of an existing, ordinary ZIP archive to form a self-
extracting (SFX) archive. Unlike the normal UnZip program, which works
on an archive specified on its command line, UnZipSFX works on an ar-
chive which has been appended to itself.
Minimizing the size of a self-extracting archive, means minimizing the
size of the UnZipSFX program itself. Thus UnZipSFX is normally built
without some of the less important features found in the normal UnZip
program. Among these are the help/usage displays (-h, -hh), the list-
ing and diagnostic functions (-l, -v), the ability to process some
older compression methods ("Implode", "Reduce", "Shrink"), and, by
default, some newer compression methods (bzip2, LZMA, PPMd) and any
encryption methods.
Starting with UnZipSFX version 5.50, the ability to extract to a direc-
tory other than the current one (-d dest_dir) has been enabled by
default. Some or all of the optional compression and/or encryption
methods can be enabled at build time, at the cost of increasing the
size of the resulting UnZipSFX program.
Starting with UnZip version 5.50, another build-time option adds a sim-
ple "run command after extraction" feature. This feature is currently
incompatible with the "extract to different directory" (-d dest_dir)
feature, and remains disabled by default.
All the build-time options controlling UnZipSFX features should be
explained in the UnZip installation instructions (INSTALL). Note that
the features (such as optional encryption or compression methods) which
are available in an UnZipSFX executable are determined when the
UnZipSFX executable is built. However, the features which are needed
are determined when the ZIP archive is created. The user must decide
which optional features to include in or exclude from the UnZipSFX exe-
cutable, and then use only the available UnZipSFX features when creat-
ing an archive for use as a self-extracting archive. Enabling optional
features in UnZipSFX makes the executable bigger (and hence SFX ar-
chives made with it). Of course, the greater efficiency of some
optional compression method might save enough space to compensate for
the bigger UnZipSFX executable which would be needed to deal with it.
And, if encryption is desired, then the UnZipSFX executable must be
able to deal with that.
Users with complex requirements may find it useful to build multiiple
UnZipSFX executables with different feature sets for different pur-
poses. The user is responsible for managing multiple UnZipSFX executa-
bles. The UnZip builders offer no tools to help, and, without a "-v"
report, determining the capabilities of an UnZipSFX executable is not
very easy. The user is also responsible for testing a self-extracting
archive on the target system, to ensure that the UnZipSFX executable
used has all the features it needs to process the attached archive.
Note that the UnZipSFX executable in a self-extracting archive
is a real executable program, and so is not generally portable
from one operating system or hardware architecture to another.
The ZIP archive within a self-extracting archive can be pro-
cessed anywhere using a normal UnZip program. (At worst, UnZip
will emit a warning like "nnnn extra bytes at beginning or
within zipfile", but using "zip -A" on an SFX bundle will pre-
vent even that annoyance.)
ARGUMENTS
member ...
An optional list of archive members to be processed, separated
by spaces. If no member list is specified, then all archive
members are processed. Wildcard patterns may be used to match
multiple members. These wildcard expressions are similar to
those supported (for "globbing") in commonly used Unix shells
(csh, ksh, sh, and so on) and may contain:
* matches a sequence of 0 or more characters.
? matches exactly 1 character.
[...] matches any single character found inside the brackets.
Ranges are specified by a beginning character, a hyphen,
and an ending character. If an exclamation point ("!")
or a caret ("^") follows the left bracket, then the range
of characters within the brackets is complemented. That
is, anything except the characters inside the brackets is
considered a match. To specify a literal left bracket,
use the three-character sequence "[[]".
Be sure to escape or quote any character(s) that might otherwise
be interpreted or modified by the operating system, particularly
Unix shells.
OPTIONS (Primary Mode)
Options in this group (-c -f -p -t -u -z) specify the primary mode of
operation of UnZipSFX. Only one of these primary mode options may be
specified.
-c
--to-stdout
Primary Mode. Extract files to stdout/screen. This option is
similar to the -p option except that the name of each file is
displayed as it is extracted, and the -a option is allowed,
which can provide automatic ASCII-EBCDIC conversion, where
appropriate.
-f
--freshen
Primary Mode. Freshen existing files. That is, extract only
those files that already exist on disk and that are newer than
the disk copies. By default, UnZipSFX queries before overwrit-
ing, but the -o option may be used to suppress the queries.
Note that on many operating systems, the TZ (timezone) environ-
ment variable must be set correctly in order for -f and -u to
work properly. (On Unix the variable is usually set automati-
cally.) The reasons for this are somewhat subtle but have to do
with the differences between DOS-format file times (always local
time) and Unix-format times (always UTC) and the necessity to
compare the two. A typical TZ value is "PST8PDT" (US Pacific
time with automatic adjustment for Daylight Saving Time).
-p
--pipe-to-stdout
Primary Mode. Extract files to stdout (pipe). Only the actual
file data for the members are sent to stdout (no file names, or
other information, as would be displayed with -c), and the files
are always extracted in binary format, just as they are stored
(no line-ending or ASCII-EBCDIC conversions).
-t
--test
Primary Mode. Test archive members. Testing means that each
archive member is extracted in memory (expanding and decrypting,
as needed), but not written to a file. The resulting CRC
(cyclic redundancy check, an enhanced checksum) of the extracted
data is then compared with the original file's stored CRC value,
and an error message is emitted if a CRC mismatch is detected.
-u
--update
Primary mode. Update existing files and create new ones if
needed. This mode performs the same function as the Freshen
(-f) mode, extracting (with query) files that are newer than
those with the same name on disk, but it also extracts those
files that do not already exist on disk. See -f, above, for
information on setting the timezone properly.
-z
--zipfile-comment
Primary mode. Display only the archive comment.
OPTIONS (Ordinary)
-2
--force-ods2
[VMS] Convert extracted file names to ODS2-compatible names,
even on an ODS5 file system. By default, if the destination
file system is ODS5, case is preserved, and extended file name
characters are caret-escaped as needed, while if the destination
file system is ODS2, ODS2-invalid characters are replaced by
underscores.
-a
--ascii
Convert text files. Ordinarily, all files are extracted exactly
as they are stored, byte-for-byte. With -a, line endings in a
text file are adjusted to the local standard as the file is
extracted. When appropriate, ASCII<-->EBCDIC conversion is also
done.
Zip (or a similar archiving program) identifies files as
"binary" or "text" when they are archived. (A short-format Zip-
Info report denotes a binary file with a "b", and a text file
with a "t".) Zip's identification of text files may not be per-
fect, so UnZipSFX prints "[text]" or "[binary]" as a visual
check for each file it extracts with -a. The -aa option forces
all files to be extracted (and converted) as text, regardless of
the supposed file type.
[VMS] On VMS, for archives with VMS attribute information (made
with "zip -V" or "ZIP /VMS"), files are always created with
their original record formats. For archives without VMS
attribute information (not made with "zip -V" or "ZIP /VMS"),
all files are normally created with Stream_LF record format.
With -a, text files are normally created with variable-length
record format, but adding -S gives them Stream_LF record format.
With -aa, all files are treated as text files. See also -b and
-S.
Support for line-ending conversion for text files may be removed
in some future UnZipSFX version, because the creator of a self-
ectracting archive should easily be able to ensure that text
files have the appropriate characteristics for the SFX target
system (and expecting the SFX user to specify the appropriate
option is unreliable). ASCII-EBCDIC conversion must continue to
be supported, because the ZIP archive format implies ASCII stor-
age of text files.
-b
--binary
[Tandem, VMS] Selects the file record format used when extract-
ing binary files. -b may conflict or interact with -a in dif-
ferent ways on different system types. -b is ignored on systems
other than Tandem and VMS.
Zip (or a similar archiving program) identifies files as
"binary" or "text" when they are archived. (A short-format Zip-
Info report denotes a binary file with a "b", and a text file
with a "t".)
[Tandem] Force the creation files with filecode type 180 ('C')
when extracting archive members marked as "text". (On Tandem, -a
is enabled by default, see above).
[VMS] On VMS, for archives with VMS attribute information (made
with "zip -V" or "ZIP /VMS"), files are always created with
their original record formats. For archives without VMS
attribute information (not made with "zip -V" or "ZIP /VMS"),
files are normally created with Stream_LF record format. With
-b, binary files are created with fixed-length, 512-byte record
format. With -bb, all files are treated as binary files. When
extracting to standard output (-c or -p option in effect), the
default conversion of text record delimiters is disabled for
binary files (with -b), or for all files (with -bb).
-C
--ignore-case ([CMS, MVS] --CMS-MVS-lower)
Use case-insensitive name matching for file names in the file
list and the -x excluded-file list on the command line. By
default, case-sensitive matching is done. For example, specify-
ing "makefile" on the command line will match only "makefile" in
the archive, not "Makefile" or "MAKEFILE". On many systems, the
local file system is case-insensitive, so case-insensitive name
matching would be more natural. With -C, "makefile" would match
"makefile", "Makefile", or "MAKEFILE".
-C does not affect the matching of archive members to existing
files on the extraction path. So, on a case-sensitive file sys-
tem, UnZipSFX will never try to overwrite a file "FOO" when
extracting a member named "foo"!
-c
--to-stdout
Primary Mode. Extract files to stdout/screen. For details, see
Primary Mode options.
-D
--dir-timestamps
Control timestamps on extracted files and directories. By
default, UnZipSFX restores timestamps for extracted files, but
not for directories it creates. Specifying -D tells UnZipSFX
not to restore any timestamps. Specifying -D- tells UnZipSFX to
restore timestamps for directories as well as other items. -D-
works only on systems that support setting timestamps for direc-
tories (currently ATheOS, BeOS, MacOS, OS/2, Unix, VMS, Win32).
On other systems, -D- has no effect.
[Non-VMS] Timestamp restoration behavior changed between UnZip
versions 6.00 and 6.1. The following table shows the effects of
various -D options for both versions.
UnZip version |
6.00 | 6.1 | Restore timestamps on:
-----------+-----------+------------------------
-DD | -D | Nothing.
-D | (default) | Files, not directories.
(default) | -D- | Files and directories.
[VMS] The old behavior on VMS was the same as the new behavior
on all systems. (The old negated --D option is now -D-, because
of changes to the command-line parser.)
-d dest_dir
--extract-dir dest_dir
Specifies a destination directory for extracted files. By
default, files are extracted (and subdirectories created) in the
current directory. With -d dest_dir, extraction is done into
the specified directory, instead.
The option and directory may be concatenated without any white
space between them, but this may cause normal shell behavior to
be suppressed. For example, "-d ~" (tilde) is expanded by Unix
shells into the name of the user's home directory, but "-d~" is
treated as a literal "~" subdirectory of the current directory.
[VMS] On VMS, only a VMS-style device:[directory] specification
is permitted.
This option may be disabled at build time in UnZipSFX.
-F
--keep-nfs
[Acorn] Suppress removal of NFS filetype extension from stored
filenames.
[non-Acorn systems supporting long filenames with embedded com-
mas, and only if compiled with ACORN_FTYPE_NFS defined] Trans-
late filetype information from ACORN RISC OS extra field blocks
into a NFS filetype extension and append it to the names of the
extracted files. (When the stored filename appears already to
have an appended NFS filetype extension, it is replaced by the
info from the extra field.)
-f
--freshen
Primary Mode. Freshen existing files. For details, see Primary
Mode options.
-I char_set
--iso-char-set char_set
[Unix] Select ISO character set char_set.
-J
--junk-attrs
[BeOS] Junk file attributes. The file's BeOS file attributes
are not restored, only the file's data.
[MacOS] Ignore MacOS extra fields. All Macintosh-specific info
is skipped. AppleDouble files are restored as separate files.
-j[=depth]
--junk-dirs[=depth]
Junk directories. With -j, all directory information is
stripped from an archive member name, so all files are extracted
into the destination directory. (See also -d.)
If a depth (=depth, where depth is a positive integer) is speci-
fied, then that number of directory levels will be stripped from
an archive member name. For example, an archive member like
"a/b/c/d/ee.txt" would normally be extracted as
"a/b/c/d/ee.txt". With -j, it would be extracted as "ee.txt".
With -j=2, the first two directory levels would be stripped, so
it would be extracted as "c/d/ee.txt".
--jar
Treat archive(s) as Java JAR. Over-simplification in Java JAR archives
can cause UnZipSFX to transform UTF-8 file names according to inappro-
priate (MS-DOS) rules, yielding corrupt names on extracted files (typi-
cally those with character codes 128-255). Archives containing a Java
"CAFE" extra field should be detected automatically, and handled cor-
rectly, but not all JAR archives include that extra field. Specifying
--jar tells UnZipSFX to expect UTF-8 file names, regardless of whether
the archive contains a "CAFE" extra field.
-k
--keep-permissions
[AtheOS, BeOS, Unix, VMS] Control how archived permissions or
protections are restored on extracted files and directories.
By default, archived permissions are restored with some limita-
tions. On AtheOS, BeOS, and Unix, the current umask value is
applied (to the normal user/group/other permissions). On VMS,
the current default protection is applied to the UIC-based
(SOGW) protections.
With -k, the archived permissions are restored without regard to
the Unix umask or VMS default protection. (This was the default
behavior in UnZip versions before 6.1.)
With -k-, the archived permissions are ignored, so only the Unix
umask or VMS default protection is effective. (On VMS, directo-
ries are always created without any Delete access.)
On AtheOS, BeOS, and Unix, the SUID/SGID/Tacky permission bits
are controlled by the -K/--keep-s-attrs option, regardless of
the -k/--keep-permissions setting.
-ka
--keep-acl
[VMS] Restore ACLs on extracted files and directories.
-L
--lowercase-names
Convert to lowercase any filename originating on an uppercase-
only operating system or file system. (This was UnZipSFX's
default behavior in versions before 5.11. The current default
behavior is the same as the old behavior with the -U option. -U
is now used for another purpose.)
Depending on the archiver, files archived from single-case file
systems (old MS-DOS FAT, VMS ODS2, and so on) may be stored as
all-uppercase names; this can be ugly or inconvenient when
extracting to a case-preserving file system such as OS/2 HPFS or
a case-sensitive one such as on Unix. By default, UnZipSFX
lists and extracts such filenames exactly as they're stored
(excepting truncation, conversion of unsupported characters, an
so on). With -L, the names of all files from certain systems
will be converted to lowercase. With -LL, all file names will
be down-cased, regardless of the originating file system.
-M [CMS,MVS] Or: -m)
--more
Pipe all output through an internal pager similar to the Unix
more(1) command. At the end of a screenful of output, UnZipSFX
pauses with a "--More--" prompt; the next screenful may be
viewed by pressing the Enter/Return key or the space bar.
UnZipSFX can be terminated by pressing the "Q" key and, on some
systems, the Enter/Return key. Unlike Unix more(1), there is no
forward-searching or editing capability. Also, UnZipSFX doesn't
notice if long lines wrap at the edge of the screen, effectively
resulting in the printing of two or more lines and the likeli-
hood that some text will scroll off the top of the screen before
being viewed. If the actual number of lines on the screen can
not be determined, 24 lines will be assumed.
-n
--never-overwrite
When extracting, never overwrite existing files. If a file
already exists, then skip the extraction of that file without
asking. See also -o (--overwrite).
By default, UnZipSFX queries the user before extracting any file
that already exists. The user may choose to overwrite only the
current file, overwrite all files, skip extraction of the cur-
rent file, skip extraction of all existing files, or rename the
current file (choose a new name for the extracted file).
[VMS] On VMS, the usual query choices are to create a new ver-
sion of an existing file, to skip extraction, or to rename the
current file. In the case where an archive member name includes
a version number, and -V ("retain VMS file version numbers") is
in effect, then an additional query choice is offered: to over-
write the existing file.
-O char_set
--oem-char-set char_set
[Unix] Select OEM character set char_set.
-o
--overwrite
When extracting, always overwrite existing files without prompt-
ing. This is a dangerous option, so use it with care. (It is
often used with -f, however, and is the only way to overwrite
directory EAs on OS/2.) See also -n (--never-overwrite).
By default, UnZipSFX queries the user before extracting any file
that already exists.
[Non-VMS] On non-VMS systems, the user may choose to overwrite
only the current file, overwrite all files, skip extraction of
the current file, skip extraction of all existing files, or
rename the current file (choose a new name for the extracted
file).
[VMS] On VMS, the usual query choices are to create a new ver-
sion of an existing file, to skip extraction, or to rename the
current file. In the case where an archive member name includes
a version number, and -V ("retain VMS file version numbers") is
in effect, then an additional query choice is offered: to over-
write the existing file. In this case, -o selects the "new ver-
sion" choice, and -oo (or: -o -o) selects the "overwrite"
choice.
-P password
--password password
[CRYPT_AES_WG, CRYPT_TRAD] -P ("--password") is valid only if
encryption support was enabled at build-time for the UnZipSFX
program.
Use password to decrypt encrypted archive members (if any).
THIS IS INSECURE! Many multi-user operating systems provide
ways for any user to see the current command line of any other
user. Even on stand-alone systems, there is always the threat
of over-the-shoulder peeking. Storing the plaintext password as
part of a command line in an automated script can be even less
secure, Whenever possible, use the non-echoing, interactive
prompt to enter passwords. Where security is truly important,
use a strong encryption method, such as AES, instead of the rel-
atively weak encryption provided by Traditional ZIP encryption.
Or, use an external encryption program, such as GnuPG, before
archiving the file. (Note that Zip will probably not be able to
do significant compression on a file which has already been
encrypted.)
-p
--pipe-to-stdout
Primary Mode. Extract files to stdout (pipe). For details, see
Primary Mode options.
-q
--quiet
Perform operations quietly. (-qq: even more quietly). By
default, UnZipSFX prints the names of the files it's extracting
or testing, the extraction methods, any member or archive com-
ments that may be stored in the archive, and possibly a summary
when finished with each archive. The -q[q] options suppress the
printing of some or all of these messages.
-r
--remove-exts
[Tandem] Remove file extensions.
-S
--stream_lf
[VMS] Use Stream_LF record format when converting extracted text
files (-a, -aa), instead of the text-file default, variable-
length record format.
[VMS] On VMS, for archives with VMS attribute information (made
with "zip -V"), files are always created with their original
record formats. For archives without VMS attribute information
(not made with "zip -V"), all files are normally created with
Stream_LF record format. With -a, text files are normally cre-
ated with variable-length record format, but adding -S gives
them Stream_LF record format. With -aa, all files are treated
as text files. See also -a and -b.
-s
--space_to_uscore
Convert spaces in filenames to underscores. Normally, on a sys-
tem which allows spaces in filenames, UnZipSFX extracts file-
names with spaces intact (for example, "EA DATA. SF"). Working
with such file names can be awkward, however, so -s can be used
to replace spaces with underscores.
-t
--test
Primary Mode. Test archive members. For details, see Primary
Mode options.
-U
--unicode
[UNICODE_SUPPORT] Control UTF-8 handling. When UNICODE_SUPPORT
is available, -U forces UnZipSFX to escape all non-ASCII charac-
ters from UTF-8 coded filenames as "#Uxxxx' (for UCS-2 charac-
ters, or "#Lxxxxxx" for Unicode codepoints needing 3 octets).
This option is provided mainly for debugging, when the fairly
new UTF-8 support is suspected of mangling extracted filenames.
-UU disables the recognition of UTF-8 encoded filenames. The
handling of filename codings within UnZipSFX falls back to the
behavior of pre-Unicode versions.
[old, obsolete usage] Leave filenames uppercase if created on
MS-DOS, VMS, and so on. See -L.
-u
--update
Primary mode. Update existing files and create new ones if
needed. For details, see Primary Mode options.
-V
--keep-versions
[Non-CMS-MVS] Retain VMS file version numbers. VMS files can
be stored with a version number, in the format file.type;##,
where "##" is a positive decimal number. By default, the ";##"
version numbers are stripped, but this option allows them to be
retained. (On file systems that limit filenames to particularly
short lengths, the version numbers may be truncated or stripped
regardless of this option.)
[Non-VMS] Note that before UnZip version 6.1, on a non-VMS sys-
tem, a file with a name like "fred;123" would, by default, be
extracted as "fred", even if the file did not originate on a VMS
system (so that ";123" was probably not really a VMS version
number). Beginning with UnZip version 6.1, the default behavior
is to strip VMS version numbers only from files which were
archived on a VMS system. To restore the old behavior, and
always strip apparent VMS version numbers, explicitly negate the
option: -V-.
[VMS] Note that on VMS, -V affects only version numbers, and is
not needed to restore VMS file attributes. Zip's -V (/VMS)
option is required to store VMS attributes in an archive. If
that was done when an archive was created, then UnZipSFX will
always restore those attributes when a file is extracted.
-W
--wild-no-span
[WILD_STOP_AT_DIR] (Valid when the program was built with the C
macro WILD_STOP_AT_DIR defined.) By default, the wildcard char-
acters "?" (single-character wildcard) and "*" (multi-character
wildcard) match any character in a member path/name. "-W" modi-
fies the pattern-matching behavior for archive members so that
both "?" (single-character wildcard) and "*" (multi-character
wildcard) do not match the directory separator character "/".
(The two-character sequence "**" acts as a multi-character wild-
card that includes the directory separator in its matched char-
acters.) For example, with "-W":
"*.c" matches "foo.c" but not "mydir/foo.c"
"**.c" matches both "foo.c" and "mydir/foo.c"
"*/*.c" matches "bar/foo.c" but not "baz/bar/foo.c"
"??*/*" matches "ab/foo" and "abc/foo"
but not "a/foo" or "a/b/foo"
This modified behavior is equivalent to the pattern matching
style used by the shells of some of UnZipSFX's supported target
OSs (one example is Acorn RISC OS). This option may not be
available on systems where the Zip archive's internal directory
separator character "/" is allowed as regular character in
native operating system filenames.
[non-VMS] Currently, UnZipSFX uses the same pattern matching
rules for both wildcard archive file name specifications and ar-
chive member selection patterns on most system types. For sys-
tems allowing "/" as regular filename character, the -W option
would not work as expected on a wildcard file name specifica-
tion.
-X
--restore-info
[VMS, Unix, OS/2, NT, Tandem] Restore owner info (UIC on VMS, or
user and group info (UID/GID) on Unix, or access control lists
(ACLs) on certain network-enabled versions of OS/2 (Warp Server
with IBM LAN Server/Requester 3.0 to 5.0; Warp Connect with IBM
Peer 1.0), or security ACLs on Windows NT.) In most cases this
will require special system privileges, and doubling the option
(-XX) on NT instructs UnZipSFX to use privileges for extraction;
but on Unix, for example, a user who belongs to several groups
can restore files owned by any of those groups, so long as the
user IDs match the user's own. Note that ordinary file
attributes are always restored. This option applies only to
optional, extra ownership info available on some operating sys-
tems. (NT's access control lists do not appear to be especially
compatible with OS/2's, so no attempt is made at cross-platform
portability of access privileges. It is not clear under which
conditions this would ever be useful anyway.)
-x member ...
--exclude member ...
An optional list of archive members to be excluded from process-
ing. Because wildcard characters normally match "/" directory
separators (for exceptions, see the option -W), this option may
be used to exclude any files that are in subdirectories. For
example, "unzip foo *.[ch] -x */*" would extract all C source
files (*.c, *.h) in the main directory, but none in any subdi-
rectories. Without the -x option, all C source files in all
directories in the archive would be extracted.
When the program sees -x (--exclude) on a command line, it stops
scanning for options, and treats every succeeding item as an ar-
chive member name. To avoid any confusion between member names
and command options, it's simplest to specify -x (--exclude mem-
ber) and its member list as the last items on a command line.
Alternatively, the special name "@" can be used to terminate the
member list (and cause the program to resume scanning for
options). That is, for example, the following two commands are
equivalent:
example_sfx -b -x file1 file2 file3
example_sfx -x file1 file2 file3 @ -b
-Y
--dot-version
[VMS] Treat archive member name endings of ".nnn" (where "nnn"
is a decimal number) as if they were VMS version numbers
(";nnn"). (The default is to treat them as file types.) For
example:
"a.b.3" -> "a.b;3"
-z
--zipfile-comment
Primary mode. Display only the archive comment. For details,
see Primary Mode options.
-$
--volume-labels
[MS-DOS, NT, OS/2, VMS] Restore the volume label if the extrac-
tion medium is removable (for example, a diskette). Doubling
the option (-$$) allows fixed media (hard disks) to be labeled
as well. By default, volume labels are ignored.
[VMS] On VMS, a volume must be allocated, not shared, for a vol-
ume label to be set.
-/
--extensions
[Acorn] Overrides the extension list supplied by the Unzip$Ext
environment variable. During extraction, filename extensions
that match one of the items in this extension list are swapped
in front of the base name of the extracted file.
-:
--do-double-dots
[all but Acorn, VM/CMS, MVS, Tandem] Allows UnZipSFX to extract
archive members into locations outside of the current extraction
destination directory (and its subdirectories).
For security reasons, UnZipSFX normally removes "parent direc-
tory" path components ("../") from the path names of archive
members as they are extracted. This safety feature (new for
version 5.50) prevents UnZipSFX from accidentally writing files
to directories outside the current destination directory tree.
The -: option sets UnZipSFX back to its previous, more liberal
behavior, allowing exact extraction of archives that use "../"
path components to create multiple directory trees at or above
the level of the destination directory.
This option does not enable writing explicitly to the root
directory ("/"). To achieve this, it is necessary to set the
extraction target folder to "/" (by using an option like
"-d /"). However, when the -: option is specified, it is still
possible implicitly to write to the root directory if member
paths specifying enough "../" path components.
Use this option with extreme caution.
-^
--control-in-name
[Unix] Allow control characters in file names of extracted ZIP
archive members. On Unix, a file name may contain any (8-bit)
character code with the two exceptions of "/" (the directory
delimiter) and NUL (0x00, the C string-termination character),
unless the specific file system has more restrictive conven-
tions. Generally, this allows embedding ASCII control charac-
ters or escape sequences in file names. However, this feature
allows the use of malicious file names which can cause various
kinds of bad trouble when displayed on a user's terminal/emula-
tor. (Even a file name with unprintable but otherwise harmless
characters can cause problems for users.)
For these reasons, by default, UnZipSFX applies a filter that
removes potentially dangerous control characters from the
extracted file names. The -^ option overrides this filter in
the rare case that embedded filename dangerous control charac-
ters are to be intentionally restored.
ENVIRONMENT OPTIONS
UnZipSFX uses the same environment variables as UnZip does, although
this is more likely to affect the person creating and testing a self-
extracting archive than it is the SFX user. For details, see the unzip
manual page.
ENCRYPTION/DECRYPTION
UnZipSFX supports the same encryption methods as UnZip, but encryption
support in UnZipSFX must be explicitly enabled at build time. For
details, see the UnZip installation instructions (INSTALL).
AUTORUN COMMAND
When UnZipSFX is built with CHEAP_SFX_AUTORUN defined, a simple "com-
mand autorun" feature is enabled. The command to be run is placed at
the beginning of the Zip archive comment, using the following format:
$AUTORUN$>command-to-be-run
When UnZipSFX recognizes the token "$AUTORUN$>" at the beginning of the
ZIP archive comment, the remainder of the first line of the comment
(until the first newline character) is passed as a shell command to the
operating system using the C RTL system() function. Before executing
the command, UnZipSFX displays the command on the console and prompts
the user for confirmation. For safety, when the user has switched off
prompting by specifying the -q option, an autorun command is not exe-
cuted.
If the archive comment contains additional lines of text, then those
additional comment lines are displayed normally, unless quiet operation
was requested using a -q option.
EXAMPLES
On Unix, the following commands create a self-extracting archive (exam-
ple_sfx) from an ordinary archive (example.zip), adjust the offsets in
the resulting SFX archive, and change the permissions on the new SFX
archive's to allow execution by everyone:
cat /usr/local/bin/unzipsfx example.zip > example_sfx
zip -A example_sfx
chmod 755 example_sfx
We assume that the desired UnZipSFX executable is found at
"/usr/local/bin/unzipsfx", but any path to the desired UnZipSFX exe-
cutable is ok.
On MS-DOS, OS/2, or Windows, the following commands create a similar
SFX archive. (Note the use of the /b (binary) option in the COPY com-
mand.):
copy /b unzipsfx.exe+example.zip example_sfx.exe
zip -A example_sfx.exe
If the desired UnZipSFX executable is not in the current directory,
then an appropriate path should be specified for it.
On VMS the basic commands look like these:
copy unzipsfx.exe, example.zip example_sfx.exe
zip -A example_sfx.exe
If the desired UnZipSFX executable is not in the current default direc-
tory, then an appropriate path should be specified for it. (The VMS
APPEND command could be used instead of COPY.)
A slightly more elaborate DCL script to do this job is included in the
UnZip source kit: [.vms]makesfx.com. It uses a DCL symbol to find the
UnZipSFX executable. Comments in the script explain its usage.
@ makesfx.com example.zip example_sfx.exe
As usual on VMS, if a program like an UnZipSFX bundle is to be executed
without options or arguments, then the RUN command may be used. For
example:
run example_sfx.exe
More work is needed when options or arguments are desired. For exam-
ple:
mcr sys$disk:[]example_sfx.exe -t -x fred.txt
Or, define a foreign-command DCL symbol, and use that:
example_sfx = "$ ''f$environment( "default")'example_sfx.exe"
example_sfx -t -x fred.txt
On AmigaDOS:
MakeSFX example example.zip UnZipSFX
(MakeSFX is included with the UnZip source distribution and with Amiga
binary distributions. "zip -A" doesn't work on Amiga self-extracting
archives.)
To test (or list) the newly created self-extracting archive, use -t:
example_sfx -t
To test "example_sfx" quietly, printing only a summary message indicat-
ing whether the archive is OK or not, use -tqq:
example_sfx -tqq
To extract the complete contents into the current directory, recreating
all files and subdirectories as necessary:
example_sfx
To extract all *.txt files:
example_sfx *.txt
On Unix, quote the "*":
example_sfx '*.txt'
To extract everything except the *.txt files:
example_sfx -x *.txt
or:
example_sfx -x '*.txt'
To extract only the README file to standard output (the screen):
example_sfx -c README
To print only the archive comment:
example_sfx -z
LIMITATIONS
The principal and fundamental limitation of UnZipSFX is that it is not
generally portable from one operating system or hardware architecture
to another. Therefore, neither are the resulting SFX archives, as
self-extracting archives. The ZIP archive within a self-extracting ar-
chive bundle can always be processed anywhere using a normal UnZip pro-
gram, even where the UnZipSFX program in the bundle can't do the job.
At worst, UnZip will emit a warning like "nnnn extra bytes at beginning
or within zipfile", but using "zip -A" on an SFX bundle will prevent
even that annoyance. (UnZipSFX itself does not emit the "extra bytes"
warning, even if the "zip -A" adjustment is not done.)
Strictly speaking, until "zip -A" is used to adjust the offsets within
the UnZipSFX+archive bundle, that bundle is not a valid ZIP archive,
because the offsets in it are wrong. Info-ZIP UnZip can still work
with it (emitting that "extra bytes" warning mentioned above), but some
other unzipping program might have more trouble with it. After the
"zip -A" offset adjustment has been done, any unzipping program should
be able to work with the resulting SFX bundle.
To do its work, the UnZipSFx program in a self-extracting archive must
open and read the self-extracting archive file itself. (It's not
enough that the shell can find it. It must be able to find itself.)
UnZipSFX has no knowledge of the user's PATH, so, in general, a self-
extracting archive must either be in the current directory when it is
invoked (and "." must be on the user's PATH), or else some explicit
(absolute or relative) path must be specified. For example:
# example_sfx -t # Fails if "." is not on PATH.
bash: example_sfx: command not found
# ./example_sfx -t # Works.
or:
mkdir sandbox
cd sandbox
../example_sfx
If a user runs a self-extracting archive which is found in a directory
on the PATH other than the current one ("."), then UnZipSFX may fail
with a fatal error: "cannot find myself!". This is always true on
Unix, and may be true in some cases under MS-DOS, depending on the com-
piler used. (Microsoft C may fully qualify the program name, but other
compilers may not.) Under OS/2 and NT there are operating-system func-
tions available that provide the full path name, so the archive may be
invoked from anywhere in the user's path. On VMS, this problem never
arises, because the program always sees an absolute path to itself,
even when DCL$PATH is used. (The situation is unknown for more obscure
operating systems: AmigaDOS, Atari TOS, and so on. Reports are wel-
come.)
As explained above, some normal UnZip features are omitted from
UnZipSFX to make it smaller. The diagnostic (-v) and listing (-l) fea-
tures are always omitted. Optional compression methods (bzip2, LZMA,
PPMd) and any encryption methods (Traditional, AES_WG) are omitted by
default, but may be enabled when UnZipSFX is built. For details, see
the installation instructions (INSTALL).
UnZipSFX on the Amiga requires the use of a special program, MakeSFX,
to create working self-extracting archives; simple concatenation does
not work. (For technically oriented users, the attached archive is
defined as a "debug hunk".) There may be compatibility problems
between the ROM levels of older Amigas and newer ones.
EXIT STATUS
The possible exit status values from UnZipSFX are the same as those for
UnZipSFX. See the unzip manual page for details.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+---------------+------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+------------------+
|Availability | compress/unzip |
+---------------+------------------+
|Stability | Volatile |
+---------------+------------------+
SEE ALSO
funzip(1L), unzip(1L), zip(1L), zipcloak(1L),
zipgrep(1L), zipinfo(1L), zipnote(1L), zipsplit(1L)
URL
The Info-ZIP main Web page is:
http://www.info-zip.org/
FTP access is available, too:
ftp://ftp.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/
AUTHORS
Greg Roelofs was responsible for the basic modifications to UnZip nec-
essary to create UnZipSFX. See unzip(1L) for the current list of Info-
ZIP authors.
NOTES
This software was built from source available at
https://github.com/oracle/solaris-userland. The original community
source was downloaded from http://antinode.info/ftp/info-
zip/unzip610c23.zip
Further information about this software can be found on the open source
community website at http://www.info-zip.org/UnZip.html.
Info-ZIP 15 Apr 2015 (v6.1) UNZIPSFX(1)