shar - create shell archives
SYNOPSIS
shar [ options ] file ...
shar -S [ options ]
DESCRIPTION
Shar creates "shell archives" (or shar files) which are in
text format and can be mailed. These files may be unpacked
later by executing them with /bin/sh. The resulting
archive is sent to standard out unless the -o option is
given. A wide range of features provide extensive flexi-
bility in manufacturing shars and in specifying shar
"smartness." Archives may be "vanilla" or comprehensive.
This manual page reflects shar version 4.0.
OPTIONS
Options have a one letter version starting with - or a
long version starting with --. The exception is --help and
--version which does not have a short version. Options
can be given in any order. Some options depend on each
other:
The -o option is required if the -l or -L option is used.
The -n option is required if the -a option is used.
See -V below.
--version
Print the version number of the program on standard
output, then immediately exits.
--help Print a help summary on standard output, then imme-
diately exits.
-V --vanilla-operation
Produce "vanilla" shars which rely only upon the
existence of sed and echo in the unsharing environ-
ment. In addition, "if test" must also be sup-
ported if the -X option is used. The -V silently
disables options offensive to the "network cop" (or
"brown shirt"), but does warn you if it is speci-
fied with -B, -z, -Z, -p or -M (any of which does
or might require uudecode, gzip or compress in the
unsharing environment).
-v --no-verbose
Verbose OFF. Disables the inclusion of comments to
be output when the archive is unpacked.
-w --no-character-count
Do NOT check with 'wc -c' after unpack. The default
is to check.
Name of archive to be included in the header of the
shar files. See the -a switch.
-a --net-headers
Allows automatic generation of headers:
Submitted-by: who@where
Archive-name: <name>/part##
The <name> must be given with the -n switch. If
name includes a '/' "/part" isn't used. Thus:
-n xyzzy produces:
xyzzy/part01
xyzzy/part02
-n xyzzy/patch produces:
xyzzy/patch01
xyzzy/patch02
-n xyzzy/patch01. produces:
xyzzy/patch01.01
xyzzy/patch01.02
The who@where can be explicitly stated with the -s
switch if the default isn't appropriate. Who@where
is essentially built as `whoami`@`uname`.
-s who@where --submitter=who@where
Override automatically determined submitter name.
-x --no-check-existing
Overwrite existing files without checking. If nei-
ther -x nor -X is specified, the unpack will check
for and not overwrite existing files when unpacking
the archive (unless '-c' is passed as a parameter
to the script when unpacking).
-X --query-user
Interactively overwrite existing files (DO NOT USE
FOR SHARS SUBMITTED TO THE NET).
-B --uuencode
Treat all files as binary, use uuencode prior to
packing. This increases the size of the archive.
The recipient must have uudecode in order to
unpack. (USE OF UUENCODE IS NOT APPRECIATED BY
MANY ON THE NET).
-T --text-files
Treat all files as text (default).
-z --gzip
Gzip and uuencode all files prior to packing. The
recipient must have uudecode and gzip (used with
-Z --compress
Compress and uuencode all files prior to packing.
The recipient must have uudecode and compress (used
with -d) in order to unpack (USE OF UUENCODE AND
COMPRESS IS NOT APPRECIATED BY MANY ON THE NET).
Option -C is synonymous to -Z, but is being depre-
cated.
-m --no-timestamp
Avoid generating 'touch' commands to restore the
file modification dates when unpacking files from
the archive.
-p --intermix-type
Allow positional parameter options. The options
"-B", "-T", "-z" and "-Z" may be embedded, and
files to the right of the option will be processed
in the specified mode.
-g X --level-for-gzip=X
When doing compression, use '-X' as a parameter to
gzip. The -g option turns on the -z option by
default.
-b X --bits-per-code=X
When doing compression, use '-bX' as a parameter to
compress. The -B option turns on the -Z option by
default.
-M --mixed-uuencode
Mixed mode. Determine if the files are text or
binary and archive correctly. Files found to be
binary are uudecoded prior to packing (USE OF UUEN-
CODE IS NOT APPRECIATED BY MANY ON THE NET).
-P --no-piping
Use temporary files instead of pipes in the shar
file.
-c --cut-mark
Start the shar with a cut line. A line saying 'Cut
here' is placed at the start of each output file.
-f --basename
Restore by filename only, rather than path. This
option causes only file names to be used, which is
useful when building a shar from several directo-
ries, or another directory. Note that if a direc-
tory name is passed to shar, the substructure of
that directory will be restored whether -f is spec-
ified or not.
Use XXX to delimit the files in the shar instead of
SHAR_EOF. This is for those who want to personal-
ize their shar files.
-F --force-prefix
Forces the prefix character (normally 'X' unless
the parameter to the -d option starts with 'X') to
be prepended to every line even if not required.
This option may slightly increase the size of the
archive, especially if -B or -Z is used.
-o XXX --output-prefix=XXX
Save the archive to files XXX.01 thru XXX.nn
instead of standard out. Must be used when the -l
or the -L switches are used
-l XX --whole-size-limit=XX
Limit the output file size to XXk bytes but don't
split input files.
-L XX --split-size-limit=XX
Limit output file size to XXk bytes and split files
if necessary. The archives created with this option
must be unpacked in correct order.
-S --stdin-file-list
Read list of files to be packed from the standard
input rather than from the command line. Input
must be in a form similar to that generated by the
find command, one filename per line. This switch
is especially useful when the command line will not
hold the list of files to be packed. For example:
find . -type f -print | sort | shar -S -Z -L50 -o /tmp/big
If -p is specified on the command line, then the
options "-B", "-T", "-z" and "-Z" may be included
in the standard input (on a line separate from
filenames). The maximum number of lines of stan-
dard input, file names and options, may not exceed
1024.
EXAMPLES
shar *.c > cprog.shar # all C prog sources
shar -v *.[ch] > cprog.shar # non-verbose, .c and .h files
shar -B -l28 -oarc.sh *.arc # all binary .arc files, into
# files arc.sh.01 thru arc.sh.NN
shar -f /lcl/src/u*.c > u.sh # use only the filenames
WARNINGS
No chmod or touch is ever generated for directories cre-
ated when unpacking. Thus, if a directory is given to
the original.
If a directory is passed to shar, it may be scanned more
than once. Therefore, one should be careful not change
the directory while shar is running.
Be careful that the output file(s) are not included in the
inputs or shar may loop until the disk fills up. Be par-
ticularly careful when a directory is passed to shar that
the output files are not in that directory (or a subdirec-
tory of that directory).
Use of the -B, -z or -Z, and especially -M, may slow the
archive process considerably, depending on the number of
files.
Use of -X produces shars which WILL cause problems with
many unshar procedures. Use this feature only for
archives to be passed among agreeable parties. Certainly,
-X is NOT for shell archives which are to be submitted to
Usenet. Usage of -B, -z or -Z in net shars will cause you
to be flamed off the earth. Not using -m or not using -F
may also get you occasional complaints.
SEE ALSO
unshar(1)
DIAGNOSTICS
Error messages for illegal or incompatible options, for
non-regular, missing or inaccessible files or for
(unlikely) memory allocation failure.
AUTHORS
shar3 is a derived work based on the efforts of:
decvax!microsof!uw-beave!jim (James Gosling at CMU)
Michael A. Thompson, Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S., Canada
davidsen@sixhub (Bill Davidsen)
rhg@CPS.COM (Richard H. Gumpertz)
colas@avahi.inria.fr (Colas Nahaboo)
bill@netagw.com (Bill Aten)
dennis%nanovx@gatech.edu (Dennis Boylan)
wht%n4hgf@gatech.edu (Warren Tucker)
(other anonymous persons)
man pages:
jhd@irfu.se (Jan Dj{rv)
Release 1.1d7 of the Be OS
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