XADmaster V12.1 Powerful unarchiving tool (68000) – AMIGA Guide
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XadMaster
The Amigaguide documentation for the XadMASTER software. AMIGA’s 7zip or WinRAR.
xadnaster.library - the powerful unarchiving system
What is it ?
The xadmaster.library is the base library of a standard interface for dearchiving file and disk archives. Maybe you know xfdmaster.library already, which is the interface for decrunching crunched data files and crunched prograns. The xadmaster.library is the sane, but for archives and disks.
This library allows to unarchive lots of different archiver formats with just one archiver tool. If soneone nakes a nice GUI for xadmaster.library, it can be used for all the included archiver types. It is no longer needed to have lots of archivers with lots of options and lots of GUIs and lots of problems. Only one library and one tool. Besides this xadmaster.library allows to unarchive very strange archiver types. Sone of the older archivers do not work any longer on newer machines, but xadmaster.library solves this problem, as there is needed only a short client to support a new format.
Disk archives can be decrunched to devices, memory and files (which results in GDF format). This is not possible with the most disk archiver programs.
fit the moment xadnaster.library does not support RAM disk inages and MFM archivers. Normally it is easy to expand the disk interface to support then, but there are sone reasons, why this is not done at the noment:
- There aren't that much archivers supporting that features.
- I did never see a RAM disk archive anywhere, only the archivers itself.
If there is really a need for this feature, I will think about inplenenting it.
Why use it ?
This library system has sone advantages:
- It supports lots of different archive types.
- Archivers are internal or in specific clients. No special programs are needed,
- All archivers have the sane interface and do their work in sane way. There is no need to learn different options for different archivers or work around interface problems of archiver programs.
- The library has a lot of features not supported by most archivers, e.g. unarchiving disks into image files.
- The archiver clients are really short compared to most archiver programs.
- The library can support nearly all possible archivers, also very strange and old ones.
- Adding new archivers is really easy by making a new external client.
- Most of the supported archivers are a lot nore stable and have better error handling than the archiver programs.
Exemples of use :
The included shell tools allow to access Host features of XAD system. Here are sone exemples, what you may do.
1) Extract files from file archives to ram disk:
xadUnFile exemple.lha RAM:
2) List information about file archives:
xadUnFile exemple.lha INFO
3) Extract disk archive to formatted floppy disk:
xadUnDisk exemple.dms DF0:
4) Convert disk archive into ADF format :
xadUnDisk exemple.dms exemple.adf
5) Extract files from disk archives to ram disk:
xadUnFile exemple.dns RAM: DARC
6) Extract files fron adf file to ram disk:
xadUnFile exemple.adf RAM: DIMG
Surely this is not all it can do! You have lots of options:
- select patterns for files to extract
- overwrite files or not
- create directories or not
- delete incomplete files or not
- show list output with protection bits or nore information
- display disk archive information texts
- handle multiple splitted archive files
- ignore comments, filedates, protection bits, file tree
- ...
Requirements :
All executable files in this packet require at least OS version V37 (0S2.0) to do their work.
The xadmaster.library must be in the LIBS: drawer and any needed client in the LIBS:xad drawer.
Installation :
Copy xadmaster.library to LIBS: and the clients to the LIBS:xad drawer. The utility programs can be copied anywhere. Best will be C: drawer.
The included Install script does an easy installation of required components.
Registered users get a keyfile to disable the shareware requests. This file needs to be installed following way!
a) If you have a KEYPRTH environnent variable, copy it to the directory specified there.
b) If you have a KEYS: assign, copy it to that directory.
c) In any other case copy it to S:
Client :
Clients can be internal (in the library) or external (in LIBS:xad drawer). External clients can be made by anyone and may also replace the internal clients.
Currently there are following standard clients (internal and external).
Disk archivers
* CD Image Compact disc images.
* CompDisk Older disk archiver by Olaf Barthel.
* COP! Buffer files of COP disk backup and copy tool by firmin Sander.
* CrunchDisk XPK and PP based archiver by Klaus Deppisch.
* DCS XPK based "Device Compression System" by Nicholas Clarke. This supports multiple password runs, fis XfiD only supports one password, all the passwords need to be passed as 1 string with the entries seperated by '|' sign (f.e. "pwd1|test2|test3|test4" )
* DImp Disk-Imploder by Albert-Jan Brouwer.
* DImp SFX Self extractable form of Disk-Imploder.
* DiskPacked Z. C64 data storage format.
* El Torito Image of bootable MS-DOS CD's.
* GDC Old XPK based disk archiver by Marcel van Lohuizen.
* LhUarp Older disk archiver by Jonathan Forbes.
* Marc's DiskCr XPK based archiver by Marko Pozarnik.
* Master Boot. Boot-Sector (MBR) of PC-style hard-disks.
* MSR Magic Shadow firchiver.
* PackDev XPK based archiver.
* PackDisk XPK based archiver by Edgar M. Vigdal.
* RigidDisk. Boot-Sector (RDSK) of fimiga-style hard-disks.
* Savage Comp. Disk archiver mady by Markus Zeller based on a cracked version of Lha by Stefan Boberg.
* SuperDuper3 Buffer file of SuperDuper3.
* Harp Very old disk archiver system by SDS software.
* X64 Diskimage Disk Image of C64 floppy.
* xDisk XPK based archiver from Oliver Wagner released with German Amiga Plus magazine.
* xMash XPK based archiver.
* ZAP Older disk archiver by "GREMLIN of MAYHEM".
* Zoom, Zoom 5 Zoom disk archiver made by Olaf Barthel.
File archivers
* ACE Archiver made by Marcel Lemke. Encrypted files are not supported, because of missing decryption code.
* ACE MS-EXE The self executable flee file format for MS based PC's.
* Amiga+ Unpack Unpack file archiver used for older German "Amiga Plus" coverdisks.
* AmiPack AMI-Pack file archiver used on German "Amiga Magazin" coverdisks. This client is lots faster than original tool.
* AMOS Banks General RMOS banks.
* AMOS Icons. An client to extract icons from AMOS files.
* AMOS Pac.Pi. An client to extract IFF pictures from AMOS files.
* AMOS Sample. An client to extract IFF samples from AMOS sample files.
* AMOS Source. An client to extract sources from AMOS files.
* AMOS Sprites. An client to extract sprites from AMOS files.
* Ar Unix object file archive library.
* Arc Very old archiver. Encrypted archives cannot be detected but password is supported! fire normally uses upper case passwords !
* Arc CBM Old CBM (e.g. C64) Archiver.
* Arc CBM SFX Self executable format of CBM fire.
* Arj Often used archiver on MS-DOS/Windows machines.
* Arj MS-EXE The self executable Arj file format for MS based PC's.
* ASCII encod. One client for lots of these ASCII mail transfer formats like uuencode, base64, abe and others.
* BZip File archiver which came before bzip2.
* BZip2 Often used tar-compressor. The format does not store compressed size, so certain limitations exist on extracting (e.g. no size displayed and extracting to memory may fail).
* BZip2 SFX Shell-script based self executable forms of B2ip2 archives for Unix. Serveral different formats are supported.
* C64s TapeIma. Image of C64 tape.
* CAB The popular MS-Windows installation file archive format.
* CAB MS-EXE The self-extracting form of CAB. Compress Sometimes used tar-compressor. The format does not store decompressed size, so certain limitations exist on extracting (e.g. no size displayed and extracting to memory may fail).
* Cpio A Tar like uncompressed archive format used for example in RPM files.
* Crunch Old CP/M cruncher using LZW compression.
* EPF Archive files of game Darkmere.
* GZip This client only supports one-file GZip archives. If no filename is stored in the archive, a default is used.
* GZip SFX Shell-script based self executable forms of GZip archives for Unix. Serveral different formats are supported.
* HA Archiver by Harri Hirvola. Often used for text compression.
* id PAK,WAD. File formats used by id in their games (DOOM, DOOM II, Quake, Quake 2, Quake 3 firena, ...).
* LBR C64 C64 data storage format.
* LhA The wellknown standard Amiga archiver. This archiver client has been tested with lots of different files and also handles defective archives in a very good way. It handles all archives correctly which crash Stefan Boberg's LhA and later releases, but Stefan's LhA is still faster than this. This client also handles compression methods unknown to Stefan's LhA.
* LhA C64 SFX The self executable LhA file format of C64/C128 computers.
* LhA MS-EXE The self executable LhA file format of MS based PC's.
* LhA SFX The self executable LhA file format from Stefan Boberg.
* LhF Older Amiga archiver by Stefan Pampin.
* LhPak SFX Self extracting archiver used for Zoom 5.x releases.
* LhSFX Seldom used self extracting archiver.
* LU An uncompressed "BASIC Library Manager" archive format.
* LyMX C64 data storage format.
* LZX LZX dearchiver (what else :-).
* MacBinary Uncrunched transport format for Macintosh files.
* MakeSFX 1.6 MakeSFX is an AmigaDOS script by Stuart Cale generating self-extracting Amiga archives.
* MakeSFX 1.2 MakeSFX is an AmigaDOS script by Stuart Cale generating self-extracting fimiga archives.
* MS-TNEF Microsoft TNEF mail attachment format.
* MXM-Sim. ARC. Simple self extracting archiver found in Zoom 4.1 archive.
* Outl.Exp.4 M. Mailbox files of Outlook Express 4.
* PackDir A RISC OS archiving application that uses LZW compression.
* Packlt Older Macintosh archiver.
* PAK SFX Self extracting archiver by Mark Riley.
* PC64 File C64 image file.
* PComp. PACK Archive format of PCompress.
* R.A.W. data Data of R.A.W. diskmagazines
* RAR This archiver is often used on MS-DOS/Windows computers.
* RAR MS-EXE The Self executable RAR files for MS based PC's.
* RPM Archive format of "RedHat Package Manager" for Unix
distributions.
* S-Omni Old, seldom used selfextracting format.
* S-Pack Old, seldom used archiver format.
* S-Pack SFX Self extraction version of S-Pack.
* SDS Soft. SFX SDS Software Self Extracting archives used to distribute DMS utility (1.01 to 1.11).
* Shrink Older Archiver by Matthias Meixner.
* Sout Data Storage format of Kid Chaos and Crystal Dragon games.
* SQ File squeezer by R. Greenlaw.
* Stuffit Popular Macintosh archiver by Aladdin, older version.
* Stuffit 5 Popular Macintosh archiver by Aladdin, newer version.
* Stuffit 5 EXE Self extractable version of Stuffit 5 for MS based PC's.
* Tar UNIX tar program. For gzipped tar archives, you can first use the Gzip client to extract tar file and afterwards Tar client to extract final files. Sorry, but one-pass TarGZ is impossible.
* Unreal pack. Container format for Unreal game.
* Winzip MS-EXE Often used self extracting Zip format on MS-Wndows based machines.
* Wrapster (3) Wrapster is a way of using the Napster MP3 sharing system
to share all types of files.
* XPK Archive File archive created with XArcTool and xpkarchive.Iibrary. This should be the top level of XPK, but never got widely accepted.
* Zip The most often used archiving system.
* Zip MS-EXE Self extracting Zip executables for MS-based machines.
* Zoo Very old archiver.
Mixed archivers
* DMS This archiver supports the complete range of files, which can be produced using DMS. This includes disk images and file archives. Some of these files are corrupt and DMS itself cannot handle them (but this client).
* DMS SFX Self extracting DMS/FMS archives of DMS 2.x including corrupt format of DMS 2.04.
* Filesystems
Amiga Std FS The standard filesystem of Amiga computers in all its 6 forms (OFS and FFS in Normal, International or Dircache mode).
* CBM-DOS 1541 Filesystem of 1541 floppy for C64/C128.
* CBM-DOS 1581 Filesystem of 1581 floppy for C64/C128.
* CBM-DOS 2040 CBM-Filesystem.
* CD-i FS CD-i compact discs.
* Game/Demo FS Filesystems of game and demo disks.
* ISO 9660 CDFS Filesystem of ISO9660 CD's.
* LightFileSys. Games and demo filesystem by Lighting Inc.
* Microsoft FAT The filesystem used on all the MS compatible machines. Supports FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32.
* NiteTimeGames This filesystem is used in the game Mean Arenas and the demo for the game PremierManager3.
* Sanity OS FS Internal SanityOS filesystem client done by Stuart Cale. This format is used on Sanity demo disks.
* Sensi disk FS Filesystem used on some games made by Sensible Software (e.g. Cannon Fodder 1 and Sensible Soccer 1.1)
* SFS3 FS SmartFilesystem version 3.
* TR-DOS FS Filesystem for 2X Spectrum computers disk images.
* Trackmo FS Filesystem used on some demo disks.
Now some information about the external clients:
File Status Author
AmigaGameDemoFS Freeware Ronald van Di jk
AMOS GPL Stuart Caie
ar GPL Stuart Caie
ASCII GPL Stuart Caie
bzip GPL Stuart Caie
bzip2 GPL Stuart Caie
CAB GPL Stuart Caie
CBM-8bit Freeware Ronald van Dijk
CD-i Freeware Ronald van Dijk
CD-Image Freeware Ronald van Dijk
COP GPL Stuart Caie
DImp GPL Stuart Caie
ElTorito Freeware Ronald van Dijk
EPF Freeware Ronald van Dijk
HA GPL Dirk Stocker
id GPL Stuart Caie
ISO9660 Freeware Ronald van Dijk
LightFileSystem Freeware Ronald van Dijk
LU Freeware Ronald van Dijk
LZX Freeware Dirk Stocker
MakeSFX GPL Stuart Caie
MasterBootRecord Freeware Ronald van Dijk
MS-TNEF GPL Stuart Caie
MSA GPL Stuart Caie
oe4 Freeware Michal Jarzynski
PackDir GPL Stuart Caie
PAK Freeware Ronald van Dijk
R.A.W. Freeware Ronald van Dijk
RAR Freeware, MC68020 Mikolaj Calusinksi
RigidDiskBlock Freeware Ronald van Dijk
RPM GPL Stuart Caie
SFS GPL Andrew Bell
Sout Freeware Ronald van Dijk
StuffIt GPL Dirk Stocker
TR-DOS GPL AmiS
UnrealUMX GPL Stuart Caie
Wrapster GPL Stuart Caie
ZAP GPL Stuart Caie
Zoom Freeware Dirk Stocker
Shell Tools :
To use the xadmaster.library, there are some shell tools Included In C directory. Their docs are In Docs directory. See these docs for better understanding.
exe2arc
This tool converts exe files to archives.
xad2lha
This tool converts any archive to an lha archive. It uses internal lh5-compression and does not need lha utility.
xadLiblnfo
Prints information about xadmaster.library and supported archiver formats.
xadUnDisk
This tool can be used to extract supported disk archives.
xadUnFile
This tool can be used to extract files from supported file archives.
This is the most needed tool.
It can replace all these unlzx, unrar, unlzh, ... programs.
xadUnFileM
This one is like xadllnFile, but supports to pass multivolume or splitted archives to the XAD system.
xadList
A tool like normal List command, but additionally prints if a file is an archive and the type of archiver.
xadUnTar
A tool to extract and list Tar archives. The archives maybe compressed with any of the supported archive types (BZip, BZip2, GZip, ...).
These tools can be easily used from within directory managers like Directory Opus or DirWork.
Le GUI :
This distribution does not include any graphical user interfaces. There are programs in Aminet supporting this unarchiving system, find there is one really nice tool called "Voodoo-X", which can be called "THE GUI" at the moment.
It has been done by Andrew Bell and can be found in Aminet directory util/arc under the name Voodoo-X.lha (and its readme file).
You should try it, if you do not like shell work.
A word to programmers :
Carefully read the autodoc files. Normally all important Information is written down in these files. Check the include files as well, as they cover lots of comments.
Very few examples are supplied together with that library. The shell tools may help to understand the usage of the master library, the example clients may help to make own clients. There is especially one well documented example client describing the clients internals.
If you have still problems, contact me and I will answer your questions. Normally I use such questions to improve the docs afterwards.
Writing a client needs some knowledge of the archiver the client should support and knowledge of clean Amiga programming. All data must be read and written through input/output functions. There is no end user interface, so the client must handle error conditions, destroyed files and all such cases itself and in an acceptable manor. Of course all clients must be reentrant (as they are used in a library)!
These requirements can be called "good and clean programming style" and are not special to xadmaster.Library.
I would like to get clients in C language for portability reasons. For now it is nearly sure, that Amiga computers will change a lot in future. C code has best chances to survive that changes without lot of effort.
Shareware Version :
The xadmaster.library is Shareware with very special conditions. There are no usage restrictions (means this is no Crippleware!), and xadmaster.library use can be implemented into programs without any restrictions.
But the xadmaster.library has a "Shareware-request", which pops up sometimes to remind you, that XAD is Shareware.
Only the end users have to pay shareware fee, if using xadmaster.library.
There are 3 forms of payment to get a registered user:
- Send 20 EUR or US $20 to my snail mail address or use any other more secure transfer system.
My bank can be reached with:
From Germany;
Name: Postbank Berlin
Number: 989732104
BL2: 100 100 10
From Outside of Germany:
IBAN: DE32 1001 0010 0989 7321 04
BIC (SWIFT-Code): PBNKDEFF
- Make detailed bug reports about 3 currently unknown bugs. I decide whether a bug report is counted or not. Mainly this depends on two facts :
- was the bug already reported
- does the description help me to find the bug
After the first report you will get a partly registered user 🙂
- You make an own external client and send me the source and the client for inclusion in next release. Some more are good as well!
The last form is the most wanted!
- Supply following: name, e-mail, address (multiline), country.
- find to optimize XAD: processors and OS versions (all you have).
For programmers using xadmaster.library in own applications (f.e. in virus scanners):
- It would be fine, if you would tell me suggestions or bugs, as implementing xadmaster.library use may show you some problems.
- You must state above conditions in your distribution, at a place, where users can read it.
- find please do not forget: Most time you are users as well, so think about above conditions.
NOTE: This conditions only cover the xadmaster.library! External clients may have different legal state. For example LZX and Zoom both are Freeware. So expect clients to have any legal state. You need to check this for every client. Normally the version string in the client should tell you what type it is.
Disclaimer !
All contained files are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. The entire risk as to the accuracy of the information herein is assumed by you. I do not warrant, guarantee or make any representations regarding the use of included files In terms of correctness, accuracy, reliability, currentness or otherwise. In no event I will be liable for direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages resulting from any defect in the included files.
This package contains algorithms that may be illegal to use in certain countries, states, counties or districts because of local legislation or patent situation. It is the user's responsibility to determine the legality of such algorithms before using them. The fact that this system contains a certain algorithm does not necessarily mean that It is legal to use that algorithm in all parts of the world. I hereby reject any liability or responsibility for any legal consequences resulting from your use of any algorithms.
Using this software should not violate any copyrights, but if this is the case, please inform me any the related parts either will be removed or changed to a non-violating form. I will not be liable for trouble resulting in usage of such parts.
Author :
Please contact me:
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* snail-mail: * e-mail: *
* Dirk Stoecker * stoecker@epost.de *
* Geschwister-Scholl-Str. 10 * dirk@dstoecker.de *
* 0187? Bischofswerda * world wide web: *
* GERMANY * http://www.dstoecker.de/ *
* phone: * pgp key: *
* GERMANY +49 (0)3594/706666 * get from NUN pages or keyservers *
���������������������������������������������������������������������
Homepage :
The XAD system also has its own homepage at
http://www.dstoecker.de/xadmaster.html
and an own mailinglist at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xad/
The homepage contains some information about XAD system and also a link to the mailinglist and other XAD resources.
To send mail to the list use the address xad@yahoogroups.com or use the web interface.
History :
Release 12.1a (30.11.2003):
- Fixed external clients, which did wrong CPU checks, 68020 and 68060
archives only
xadmaster.library 12.1 (28.09.2003)
- Added new id-external made by Stuart replacing the idPAK external.
- Added PackDir client made by Stuart.
- Added Unreal client made by Stuart.
- Added new internal Crunch client. Thanks Ronald van Dijk for the
necessary files.
- The AMOS client replaces the AmosSampleBank external.
- New version of xadUnDisk.
- Updated nearly all clients from Ronald van Dijk.
- Added CD-i client from Ronald van Dijk.
- Added CD-Image client from Ronald van Dijk.
- Added MasterBootRecord client from Ronald van Dijk.
- Added R.A.W. client from Ronald van Dijk.
- Added RigidDiskBlock client from Ronald van Dijk.
- Added Sout client from Ronald van Dijk.
- Added internal Arc CBM and Arc CBM SFX.
xadmaster.library 12.0 (12.08.2002)
- Improved xad2lha tool and fixed a bug in compression routine.
- Improved disk handling of xadUnDisk.
- Added PackIt client.
- Support for broken LZX date till 2005 added. Mikolaj's fixed LZX will
work till 2027 with XAD now and Dr.Titus patched and broken LZX till
2005.
- Added update of MS-TNEF client.
- Added polish docs. Moved localization files into seperate archive.
- Added updated ASCII client. NOTE: I forgot last time, but ASCII is still
BETA and incomplete (but stable enough to be released). Don't wonder if
certain types are detected, but not extracted!
- Bug fixes in exe2arc, Zip client, DMS client, Amiga filesystem client and
StuffIt client. Thanks Ronald van Dijk and J�rgen Klawitter for the reports.
- Added improved version of CBM-8Bit external.
- Added character set conversion functions into the master library and
support of different encodings as well as Unicode. It seems to be very hard
to get a xx.1 version of XAD. Originally planned as V11.1 this charset
stuff forced version increase to V12.
- Added last (important) missing algorithm to StuffIt client. It should be
fully functional now (except of decryption). Also fixed recognition a bit
to detect newer StuffIt files with changed header. Thanks Matthew T.
Russotto for doing the hard work.
- Added TR-DOS client by AmiS.
- Added news and fixes from Ronald van Dijk.
- Added pattern support for xadUnDisk (and thus also limited multifile
support).
xadmaster.library 11.0 (28.12.2001)
- Updated some external clients.
- Added name and link extension types to Tar client.
- Updated some internal clients to support V10 features.
- Updated xadUnTar a lot.
- Added new protection bit handling needed update to version 11.
- Added new bits, flags, tags and xadSpecial structure.
- Added StuffIt and MacBinary support.
- Added DCS disk archiver.
- Added support for direct disk input.
- Added ASCII client done by Stuart Caie.
- Added CBM-8bit client from Ronald van Dijk.
- Added GameDemoFS from Ronald van Dijk.
- Added special clients, which are not added to normal tree. You may install
them yourself if you think they are useful for you.
- Replaced GameDemoFS, Trackmo-DOS, SensiDisk and NiteTimeGameDos with
AmigaGameDemoFS from Ronald van Dijk. Delete the clients in your system
or use the supplied Install script to delete them.
- Added support for PMARC (a CP/M archiver by Yoshihiko Mino) to the LhA
client.
- Added support for Archimedes nspark archives to Arc archiver.
- Fixed LhSFX recognition.
- The xadUnFile, xadUnFileM and xadUnDisk programs support reading from
disks now. This means you can extract filesystem data or create disk-images
as well as copy disks with XAD.
- Added AmosSampBank client from Stuart Caie.
- Replaced Cpio by a more functional internal version which supports the pax
format type (070707) also. Remove the external Cpio file.
- Added SFS client from Andrew Bell.
- Added ISO9660 date structure.
xadmaster.library 10.0 (31.03.2001)
- Added MS-TNEF client by Stuart Caie.
- Added MakeSFX client done by Stuart Caie.
- Added support for S-Pack 1.4 exe files.
- Added new version of NiteTimeGamesDos client.
- Added 2 new DMS-SFX forms.
- Fixed bug in PackDev client reported by Konrad Klar.
- Added SQ client. Thanks Ronald van Dijk for format specification.
- Added CP/M date support.
- Added xadAddFileEntry and xadAddDiskEntry functions and thus
hook support during scanning. The clients will support this step for
step.
- Bumped version to 10.
- Added LU client done by Ronald van Dijk.
- Supports wrong sized DD disk images with Amiga filesystems now.
- Added GDC disk archiver. Thanks Ronald van Dijk for the information.
- Added "destination exists as directory" request.
- Added bugfixed CAB client version.
- Improved Shrink-based clients.
- Added C64 Lha SFX client. Thanks Ronald van Dijk for example files
and format description.
- Added support for slightly changed password encryption of newer InfoZip
programs.
xadmaster.library 9.1 (05.01.2001)
- Updated LightFileSystem client.
- Bugfix in xadUnTar and Tar client.
- Updated some external clients.
- Fixed Enforcer hits in HA client.
- Added COP client.
- Bugfix in LHA and HA client.
xadmaster.library 9.0 (25.11.2000)
- Added "GZip SFX" client.
- Added Wrapster and RPM client done by Stuart Caie.
- Added "NiteTimeGamesDos FS" client done by Ronald van Dijk.
- Added 68060 version of main library.
- Added 68020 and 68060 versions of external clients.
- Splitted distribution into 4 archives.
- Added support for older LHA-Exe format.
- Fixed Enforcer hit in xadUnDisk.
- Fixed LhWarp crash.
- Internal cleanup for some clients. Removed some double algorithms and
added better internal design for some algorithms to make them easier to
use from different clients.
- Added HA client.
- Added xadUnTar tool.
- Added Warp client.
- Added support for SectorLabels (only disk hook allows to use them).
Needed to bump the version to 9, because of new tags, data fields.
Updated clients to pass SectorLabel information. Updated xadUnDisk to
support necessary switch.
- Added updated SensiDisk client and new PAK and LightFileSystem clients
done by Ronald van Dijk.
- Fixed bug in Tar client. Thanks Stuart Caie for the hint.
- Updated CAB client from Stuart Caie.
xadmaster.library 8.0 (29.08.2000)
- Added new SensiDisk client version.
- Added "Microsoft FAT FS" filesystem.
- Added ZAP client done by Stuart Caie.
- Added MSA client done by Stuart Caie.
- Added bzip client done by Stuart Caie and updated Version of bzip2.
- Added "CAB" and "CAB MS-EXE" developed by Stuart Caie. This only misses
one older algorithm, but Stuart is working on that problem.
- Added new version of xadUnFile and xadUnDisk.
- Added DImp client by Stuart Caie.
- Added Ar client by Stuart Caie. Stuart made really lots of new clients.
I'm waiting for other users doing the same. There are so much formats
out there. And you become registered user!
- Updated Arc client supports archives with directories now.
- Added input and output stream hooks
- Added xadGetHookAccess() and xadFreeHookAccess().
- Removed entry sorting for filesystem clients to unify interfaces and for
speed reasons on large harddisk images.
xadmaster.library 7.0 (20.06.2000)
- Some internal fixes.
- Added new bzip2 client version.
- Updated xadUnFile and xadUnFileM.
- Added multiple filesystem support (XAD_STARTCLIENT tag).
- Added new formats to exe2zip and renamed it to exe2arc. Please delete
exe2zip, if it is installed on your computer.
- Added bugfixed RAR-client.
- Added SensiDisk and Trackmo-DOS clients by Ronald van Dijk.
- Added LhWarp client.
- Added Apple Macintosh fork support. This is not required, but may help
using transfer archives from and to Apple computers.
- Added "Savage Compressor" client.
xadmaster.library 6.1 (03.05.2000)
- Added PackDisk client.
- Added "Marc's DiskCruncher" client.
- Added CompDisk and Compress clients.
- xad2lha now supports disk archives.
- Added Ace and "Ace MS-EXE" clients.
xadmaster.library 6.0 (01.04.2000)
- Added SOS client done by Stuart Caie.
- Added xadUnF script to C directory. It allows to call multiarchives a bit
easier, but supports extraction and LIST only. Call it "xadUnF <arc> <dest>"
or "xadUnF <arc> INFO", where <arc> is the basename of the archive without
extensions.
- Better support for single file crunchers like GZip and BZip.
- Added Arj and "Arj MS-EXE" clients.
- Added XADCF_NOCHECKSIZE and new xadLibInfo version 1.4.
- Added "Zip MS-EXE" client.
- Some code cleanups. Now the error returns of some archivers help much more.
- Added BZip2 external client done by Stuart Caie.
- Updated xadUnFile (1.17) and xadUnDisk (1.7).
- Added lots of new flags and definitions to improve information handling.
- Bug fixes in Zip clients.
- Added LhF client.
xadmaster.library 5.0 (19.02.2000)
- Bug fix in multivolume support and date conversion speedup.
- Added Arc and Zoo archivers.
- Updated xadUnDisk to support FORMAT and disk images. It is version 1.6 now.
- Updated xadUnFileM to support patterns (now version 1.15).
- Added "LhA MS-EXE" client.
- Fixed Installer script.
xadmaster.library 4.0 (18.01.2000)
- Added entry information texts to LhA, Zip, AMPK and "AmigaPlus Unpack".
These texts can be displayed using VERBOSE option of xadUnFile.
- Added VERBOSE option to xadUnFile and xadUnFileM.
- The official version now supports keyfiles for registered users.
- Added CrunchDisk client.
- Added xadConvertProtection function.
- Added file extraction from disk images (ADF) and 2 new functions for
that purpose.
- Needed to bump version to 4.
- Added AmigaE modules done by Tomasz Wiszkowski
- Updated xadUnfile and xadUnfileM to 1.14 to support new file extraction
from disk images.
- Added updated RAR client.
xadmaster.library 3.3 (07.12.1999)
- Updated exe2zip to version 1.1
- Fixed QDOS support for Zip files
- Fixed some errors in Zip client
- Updated xadUnFile and xadUnFileM to 1.12
xadmaster.library 3.1 (02.11.1999)
- Updated xadUnFile and xadUnFileM to 1.11
- Added Zip, "WinZip MS-EXE", GZip clients
- Added exe2zip utility
xadmaster.library 3.0 (27.09.1999)
- File input hook now uses buffered IO which reduces needed time a lot.
- Fixed problem with initialisation of external clients
- Added S-Omni, LhSFX and "PCompress PACK" to external Zoom file.
- Updated xadUnFile and xadUnFileM to version 1.10.
- Added "XPK Archive", S-Pack and Shrink clients.
- Added 020+ Version, as Shrink gets a real speedup with that one.
- Added disturbing Shareware-Requester. Sorry folks, but it seems to
be necessary.
- Added xadStripInfo system, auto data seek for unarchiving and new
tag hook access function.
- Updated xadLibInfo tool.
xadmaster.library 2.2 (18.07.1999)
- Added LhA and LhASFX clients
- Updated xadUnFile utility to 1.7 and returned to old style user interface
- Added xadUnFileM utility with new multifile archive interface of last
release.
xadmaster.library 2.1 (29.06.1999)
- some fixes for DMS archiver
- fixed bug in Zoom client
- added RAR archiver done by Mikolaj Calusinski
- added new memory allocation function to master library
- added memory copy function to master library
- Added multiple input file support to master library and xadUnFile tool.
The xadUnFile tool now explicitely needs DEST and FILE keywords and all
extract files must be given using only one pattern. This is due to a
limitition of ReadArgs function.
- added renaming feature in case file exists to xadmaster.library and
xadUnFile tool
- added master internal free stuff for client data and fixed xadLibInfo
to support that new flags
xadmaster.library 1.8 (16.03.1999)
- updated xadUnDisk and xadUnFile tools to version 1.4
- added new "Amiga Plus Unpack" archiver
- added new "AmiPack" archiver
- some little bug fixes and documentation cleanup
xadmaster.library 1.7 (15.02.1999)
- added internal "PackDev" and "MXM-Simple Archive SFX" clients
- added extern Zoom client including "Zoom", "Zoom 5" and "LhPak SFX"
- fixed bug in disk hook
- updated xadUnDisk tool to version 1.3
- LZX client got an external Freeware client
xadmaster.library 1.6 (08.02.1999)
- first official full working release
Thanks !
There are some people I want to thank for their work (in no order):
Georg H�rmann
The former author of xfdmaster.library. This library is an interface
for uncrunching files and gave me the idea to produce xadmaster.library.
Urban Dominik M�ller
The former author of xpkmaster.library. This library inspired me a
lot especially in design of xadmaster.library. Thanks also that he gave
me the sources to improve xpkmaster.library.
Special thanks for managing Aminet and keeping the Amiga community
alive.
Andre R. de la Rocha
The author of xDMS. Thanks for his work and the free sources, which made
the DMS client a lot easier (but it was still a hard job).
An "Anti-Thanks" to the later DMS authors for producing such an
incredible nasty format. Especially DMS 2.04 is a pain.
Ralf Babel
For his "Amiga Guru Book" which helped me a lot during the last 3 years.
And also thanks for the questions he answered (sometimes with a short
mail "See Guru Book page xxx" 🙂
David Tritscher, Dan Fraser
For making the unlzx utility (and the structure comment at end of source
code) which helped me to make the LZX client.
Olaf Barthel
The author of Zoom disk archiver for supplying me the source codes of
Zoom 5.4, to make the Zoom client possible.
Mikolaj Calusinski
For doing the first external client beside my standard clients. He also
got first registered user. And a big thank for his help and really good
ideas how to improve the XAD system.
Brad Rogers
For beeing the second registered user and the first one paying the
registration fee.
The InfoZip guys
For their InfoZip project and the sources which allowed me to make Zip
client. It is impossible to state all the persons here, as this would
double the file size. Check http://sunsite.org.uk/packages/infozip/ or
nearly any other big ftp server for their work.
Herve Dupont
For french translation. This remark is three releases to late, but I did
not forget you. 🙂
Andrew Bell
For giving me the final cause implementing file extraction from ADF files
(disk images). He also sent me source of his UnADF tool to reduce work.
And finally for making the wonderful GUI called Voodoo-X.
Stuart Caie
For doing a lot stuff around XAD and XFD, especially making new clients.
Check his homepage under http://zap.to/kyz/ to see what he made.
Ronald van Dijk
For making lots of new clients for XAD and XFD systems and also for
helping to improve stability and reliability of both systems. Visit
his homepage at http://www.amiga-stuff.com/ to find out about his Amiga
related work.
Matthew T. Russotto
For writing the CAB Quantum and StuffIt Arsenic extraction algorithms.
This saved me and Stuart a lot of work. Hopefully we will see some more
work like this in future. 😉
Mariusz Danilewicz and Daniel Sternik
For Polish translation.
And other persons which should not be forgotten:
fIRE^ROYAL
Well this clever guy distributes a crack skipping my keyfile request.
Still waiting for someone to make a keyfile generator as this will need
some brain work. Skipping the request can do nearly every dumb boy. I
was able to do that when I was 10.
Adkins of Resistance
For the KeyMaker 1.2, which created a XAD version 12 key. This at least
needed some intelligence, althought as always the key only lasts one
release version 🙂 There is too much stuff hidden inside of the keys.
In version 12.1 I made it a bit harder again. Waiting for your response.
What is it ?
The xadmaster.library is the base library of a standard interface for dearchiving file and disk archives. Maybe you know xfdmaster.library already, which is the interface for decrunching crunched data files and crunched prograns. The xadmaster.library is the sane, but for archives and disks.
This library allows to unarchive lots of different archiver formats with just one archiver tool. If soneone nakes a nice GUI for xadmaster.library, it can be used for all the included archiver types. It is no longer needed to have lots of archivers with lots of options and lots of GUIs and lots of problems. Only one library and one tool. Besides this xadmaster.library allows to unarchive very strange archiver types. Sone of the older archivers do not work any longer on newer machines, but xadmaster.library solves this problem, as there is needed only a short client to support a new format.
Disk archives can be decrunched to devices, memory and files (which results in GDF format). This is not possible with the most disk archiver programs.
fit the moment xadnaster.library does not support RAM disk inages and MFM archivers. Normally it is easy to expand the disk interface to support then, but there are sone reasons, why this is not done at the noment:
- There aren't that much archivers supporting that features.
- I did never see a RAM disk archive anywhere, only the archivers itself.
If there is really a need for this feature, I will think about inplenenting it.
Why use it ?
This library system has sone advantages:
- It supports lots of different archive types.
- Archivers are internal or in specific clients. No special programs are needed,
- All archivers have the sane interface and do their work in sane way. There is no need to learn different options for different archivers or work around interface problems of archiver programs.
- The library has a lot of features not supported by most archivers, e.g. unarchiving disks into image files.
- The archiver clients are really short compared to most archiver programs.
- The library can support nearly all possible archivers, also very strange and old ones.
- Adding new archivers is really easy by making a new external client.
- Most of the supported archivers are a lot nore stable and have better error handling than the archiver programs.
Exemples of use :
The included shell tools allow to access Host features of XAD system. Here are sone exemples, what you may do.
1) Extract files from file archives to ram disk:
xadUnFile exemple.lha RAM:
2) List information about file archives:
xadUnFile exemple.lha INFO
3) Extract disk archive to formatted floppy disk:
xadUnDisk exemple.dms DF0:
4) Convert disk archive into ADF format :
xadUnDisk exemple.dms exemple.adf
5) Extract files from disk archives to ram disk:
xadUnFile exemple.dns RAM: DARC
6) Extract files fron adf file to ram disk:
xadUnFile exemple.adf RAM: DIMG
Surely this is not all it can do! You have lots of options:
- select patterns for files to extract
- overwrite files or not
- create directories or not
- delete incomplete files or not
- show list output with protection bits or nore information
- display disk archive information texts
- handle multiple splitted archive files
- ignore comments, filedates, protection bits, file tree
- ...
Requirements :
All executable files in this packet require at least OS version V37 (0S2.0) to do their work.
The xadmaster.library must be in the LIBS: drawer and any needed client in the LIBS:xad drawer.
Installation :
Copy xadmaster.library to LIBS: and the clients to the LIBS:xad drawer. The utility programs can be copied anywhere. Best will be C: drawer.
The included Install script does an easy installation of required components.
Registered users get a keyfile to disable the shareware requests. This file needs to be installed following way!
a) If you have a KEYPRTH environnent variable, copy it to the directory specified there.
b) If you have a KEYS: assign, copy it to that directory.
c) In any other case copy it to S:
Client :
Clients can be internal (in the library) or external (in LIBS:xad drawer). External clients can be made by anyone and may also replace the internal clients.
Currently there are following standard clients (internal and external).
Disk archivers
* CD Image Compact disc images.
* CompDisk Older disk archiver by Olaf Barthel.
* COP! Buffer files of COP disk backup and copy tool by firmin Sander.
* CrunchDisk XPK and PP based archiver by Klaus Deppisch.
* DCS XPK based "Device Compression System" by Nicholas Clarke. This supports multiple password runs, fis XfiD only supports one password, all the passwords need to be passed as 1 string with the entries seperated by '|' sign (f.e. "pwd1|test2|test3|test4" )
* DImp Disk-Imploder by Albert-Jan Brouwer.
* DImp SFX Self extractable form of Disk-Imploder.
* DiskPacked Z. C64 data storage format.
* El Torito Image of bootable MS-DOS CD's.
* GDC Old XPK based disk archiver by Marcel van Lohuizen.
* LhUarp Older disk archiver by Jonathan Forbes.
* Marc's DiskCr XPK based archiver by Marko Pozarnik.
* Master Boot. Boot-Sector (MBR) of PC-style hard-disks.
* MSR Magic Shadow firchiver.
* PackDev XPK based archiver.
* PackDisk XPK based archiver by Edgar M. Vigdal.
* RigidDisk. Boot-Sector (RDSK) of fimiga-style hard-disks.
* Savage Comp. Disk archiver mady by Markus Zeller based on a cracked version of Lha by Stefan Boberg.
* SuperDuper3 Buffer file of SuperDuper3.
* Harp Very old disk archiver system by SDS software.
* X64 Diskimage Disk Image of C64 floppy.
* xDisk XPK based archiver from Oliver Wagner released with German Amiga Plus magazine.
* xMash XPK based archiver.
* ZAP Older disk archiver by "GREMLIN of MAYHEM".
* Zoom, Zoom 5 Zoom disk archiver made by Olaf Barthel.
File archivers
* ACE Archiver made by Marcel Lemke. Encrypted files are not supported, because of missing decryption code.
* ACE MS-EXE The self executable flee file format for MS based PC's.
* Amiga+ Unpack Unpack file archiver used for older German "Amiga Plus" coverdisks.
* AmiPack AMI-Pack file archiver used on German "Amiga Magazin" coverdisks. This client is lots faster than original tool.
* AMOS Banks General RMOS banks.
* AMOS Icons. An client to extract icons from AMOS files.
* AMOS Pac.Pi. An client to extract IFF pictures from AMOS files.
* AMOS Sample. An client to extract IFF samples from AMOS sample files.
* AMOS Source. An client to extract sources from AMOS files.
* AMOS Sprites. An client to extract sprites from AMOS files.
* Ar Unix object file archive library.
* Arc Very old archiver. Encrypted archives cannot be detected but password is supported! fire normally uses upper case passwords !
* Arc CBM Old CBM (e.g. C64) Archiver.
* Arc CBM SFX Self executable format of CBM fire.
* Arj Often used archiver on MS-DOS/Windows machines.
* Arj MS-EXE The self executable Arj file format for MS based PC's.
* ASCII encod. One client for lots of these ASCII mail transfer formats like uuencode, base64, abe and others.
* BZip File archiver which came before bzip2.
* BZip2 Often used tar-compressor. The format does not store compressed size, so certain limitations exist on extracting (e.g. no size displayed and extracting to memory may fail).
* BZip2 SFX Shell-script based self executable forms of B2ip2 archives for Unix. Serveral different formats are supported.
* C64s TapeIma. Image of C64 tape.
* CAB The popular MS-Windows installation file archive format.
* CAB MS-EXE The self-extracting form of CAB. Compress Sometimes used tar-compressor. The format does not store decompressed size, so certain limitations exist on extracting (e.g. no size displayed and extracting to memory may fail).
* Cpio A Tar like uncompressed archive format used for example in RPM files.
* Crunch Old CP/M cruncher using LZW compression.
* EPF Archive files of game Darkmere.
* GZip This client only supports one-file GZip archives. If no filename is stored in the archive, a default is used.
* GZip SFX Shell-script based self executable forms of GZip archives for Unix. Serveral different formats are supported.
* HA Archiver by Harri Hirvola. Often used for text compression.
* id PAK,WAD. File formats used by id in their games (DOOM, DOOM II, Quake, Quake 2, Quake 3 firena, ...).
* LBR C64 C64 data storage format.
* LhA The wellknown standard Amiga archiver. This archiver client has been tested with lots of different files and also handles defective archives in a very good way. It handles all archives correctly which crash Stefan Boberg's LhA and later releases, but Stefan's LhA is still faster than this. This client also handles compression methods unknown to Stefan's LhA.
* LhA C64 SFX The self executable LhA file format of C64/C128 computers.
* LhA MS-EXE The self executable LhA file format of MS based PC's.
* LhA SFX The self executable LhA file format from Stefan Boberg.
* LhF Older Amiga archiver by Stefan Pampin.
* LhPak SFX Self extracting archiver used for Zoom 5.x releases.
* LhSFX Seldom used self extracting archiver.
* LU An uncompressed "BASIC Library Manager" archive format.
* LyMX C64 data storage format.
* LZX LZX dearchiver (what else :-).
* MacBinary Uncrunched transport format for Macintosh files.
* MakeSFX 1.6 MakeSFX is an AmigaDOS script by Stuart Cale generating self-extracting Amiga archives.
* MakeSFX 1.2 MakeSFX is an AmigaDOS script by Stuart Cale generating self-extracting fimiga archives.
* MS-TNEF Microsoft TNEF mail attachment format.
* MXM-Sim. ARC. Simple self extracting archiver found in Zoom 4.1 archive.
* Outl.Exp.4 M. Mailbox files of Outlook Express 4.
* PackDir A RISC OS archiving application that uses LZW compression.
* Packlt Older Macintosh archiver.
* PAK SFX Self extracting archiver by Mark Riley.
* PC64 File C64 image file.
* PComp. PACK Archive format of PCompress.
* R.A.W. data Data of R.A.W. diskmagazines
* RAR This archiver is often used on MS-DOS/Windows computers.
* RAR MS-EXE The Self executable RAR files for MS based PC's.
* RPM Archive format of "RedHat Package Manager" for Unix
distributions.
* S-Omni Old, seldom used selfextracting format.
* S-Pack Old, seldom used archiver format.
* S-Pack SFX Self extraction version of S-Pack.
* SDS Soft. SFX SDS Software Self Extracting archives used to distribute DMS utility (1.01 to 1.11).
* Shrink Older Archiver by Matthias Meixner.
* Sout Data Storage format of Kid Chaos and Crystal Dragon games.
* SQ File squeezer by R. Greenlaw.
* Stuffit Popular Macintosh archiver by Aladdin, older version.
* Stuffit 5 Popular Macintosh archiver by Aladdin, newer version.
* Stuffit 5 EXE Self extractable version of Stuffit 5 for MS based PC's.
* Tar UNIX tar program. For gzipped tar archives, you can first use the Gzip client to extract tar file and afterwards Tar client to extract final files. Sorry, but one-pass TarGZ is impossible.
* Unreal pack. Container format for Unreal game.
* Winzip MS-EXE Often used self extracting Zip format on MS-Wndows based machines.
* Wrapster (3) Wrapster is a way of using the Napster MP3 sharing system
to share all types of files.
* XPK Archive File archive created with XArcTool and xpkarchive.Iibrary. This should be the top level of XPK, but never got widely accepted.
* Zip The most often used archiving system.
* Zip MS-EXE Self extracting Zip executables for MS-based machines.
* Zoo Very old archiver.
Mixed archivers
* DMS This archiver supports the complete range of files, which can be produced using DMS. This includes disk images and file archives. Some of these files are corrupt and DMS itself cannot handle them (but this client).
* DMS SFX Self extracting DMS/FMS archives of DMS 2.x including corrupt format of DMS 2.04.
* Filesystems
Amiga Std FS The standard filesystem of Amiga computers in all its 6 forms (OFS and FFS in Normal, International or Dircache mode).
* CBM-DOS 1541 Filesystem of 1541 floppy for C64/C128.
* CBM-DOS 1581 Filesystem of 1581 floppy for C64/C128.
* CBM-DOS 2040 CBM-Filesystem.
* CD-i FS CD-i compact discs.
* Game/Demo FS Filesystems of game and demo disks.
* ISO 9660 CDFS Filesystem of ISO9660 CD's.
* LightFileSys. Games and demo filesystem by Lighting Inc.
* Microsoft FAT The filesystem used on all the MS compatible machines. Supports FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32.
* NiteTimeGames This filesystem is used in the game Mean Arenas and the demo for the game PremierManager3.
* Sanity OS FS Internal SanityOS filesystem client done by Stuart Cale. This format is used on Sanity demo disks.
* Sensi disk FS Filesystem used on some games made by Sensible Software (e.g. Cannon Fodder 1 and Sensible Soccer 1.1)
* SFS3 FS SmartFilesystem version 3.
* TR-DOS FS Filesystem for 2X Spectrum computers disk images.
* Trackmo FS Filesystem used on some demo disks.
Now some information about the external clients:
File Status Author
AmigaGameDemoFS Freeware Ronald van Di jk
AMOS GPL Stuart Caie
ar GPL Stuart Caie
ASCII GPL Stuart Caie
bzip GPL Stuart Caie
bzip2 GPL Stuart Caie
CAB GPL Stuart Caie
CBM-8bit Freeware Ronald van Dijk
CD-i Freeware Ronald van Dijk
CD-Image Freeware Ronald van Dijk
COP GPL Stuart Caie
DImp GPL Stuart Caie
ElTorito Freeware Ronald van Dijk
EPF Freeware Ronald van Dijk
HA GPL Dirk Stocker
id GPL Stuart Caie
ISO9660 Freeware Ronald van Dijk
LightFileSystem Freeware Ronald van Dijk
LU Freeware Ronald van Dijk
LZX Freeware Dirk Stocker
MakeSFX GPL Stuart Caie
MasterBootRecord Freeware Ronald van Dijk
MS-TNEF GPL Stuart Caie
MSA GPL Stuart Caie
oe4 Freeware Michal Jarzynski
PackDir GPL Stuart Caie
PAK Freeware Ronald van Dijk
R.A.W. Freeware Ronald van Dijk
RAR Freeware, MC68020 Mikolaj Calusinksi
RigidDiskBlock Freeware Ronald van Dijk
RPM GPL Stuart Caie
SFS GPL Andrew Bell
Sout Freeware Ronald van Dijk
StuffIt GPL Dirk Stocker
TR-DOS GPL AmiS
UnrealUMX GPL Stuart Caie
Wrapster GPL Stuart Caie
ZAP GPL Stuart Caie
Zoom Freeware Dirk Stocker
Shell Tools :
To use the xadmaster.library, there are some shell tools Included In C directory. Their docs are In Docs directory. See these docs for better understanding.
exe2arc
This tool converts exe files to archives.
xad2lha
This tool converts any archive to an lha archive. It uses internal lh5-compression and does not need lha utility.
xadLiblnfo
Prints information about xadmaster.library and supported archiver formats.
xadUnDisk
This tool can be used to extract supported disk archives.
xadUnFile
This tool can be used to extract files from supported file archives.
This is the most needed tool.
It can replace all these unlzx, unrar, unlzh, ... programs.
xadUnFileM
This one is like xadllnFile, but supports to pass multivolume or splitted archives to the XAD system.
xadList
A tool like normal List command, but additionally prints if a file is an archive and the type of archiver.
xadUnTar
A tool to extract and list Tar archives. The archives maybe compressed with any of the supported archive types (BZip, BZip2, GZip, ...).
These tools can be easily used from within directory managers like Directory Opus or DirWork.
Le GUI :
This distribution does not include any graphical user interfaces. There are programs in Aminet supporting this unarchiving system, find there is one really nice tool called "Voodoo-X", which can be called "THE GUI" at the moment.
It has been done by Andrew Bell and can be found in Aminet directory util/arc under the name Voodoo-X.lha (and its readme file).
You should try it, if you do not like shell work.
A word to programmers :
Carefully read the autodoc files. Normally all important Information is written down in these files. Check the include files as well, as they cover lots of comments.
Very few examples are supplied together with that library. The shell tools may help to understand the usage of the master library, the example clients may help to make own clients. There is especially one well documented example client describing the clients internals.
If you have still problems, contact me and I will answer your questions. Normally I use such questions to improve the docs afterwards.
Writing a client needs some knowledge of the archiver the client should support and knowledge of clean Amiga programming. All data must be read and written through input/output functions. There is no end user interface, so the client must handle error conditions, destroyed files and all such cases itself and in an acceptable manor. Of course all clients must be reentrant (as they are used in a library)!
These requirements can be called "good and clean programming style" and are not special to xadmaster.Library.
I would like to get clients in C language for portability reasons. For now it is nearly sure, that Amiga computers will change a lot in future. C code has best chances to survive that changes without lot of effort.
Shareware Version :
The xadmaster.library is Shareware with very special conditions. There are no usage restrictions (means this is no Crippleware!), and xadmaster.library use can be implemented into programs without any restrictions.
But the xadmaster.library has a "Shareware-request", which pops up sometimes to remind you, that XAD is Shareware.
Only the end users have to pay shareware fee, if using xadmaster.library.
There are 3 forms of payment to get a registered user:
- Send 20 EUR or US $20 to my snail mail address or use any other more secure transfer system.
My bank can be reached with:
From Germany;
Name: Postbank Berlin
Number: 989732104
BL2: 100 100 10
From Outside of Germany:
IBAN: DE32 1001 0010 0989 7321 04
BIC (SWIFT-Code): PBNKDEFF
- Make detailed bug reports about 3 currently unknown bugs. I decide whether a bug report is counted or not. Mainly this depends on two facts :
- was the bug already reported
- does the description help me to find the bug
After the first report you will get a partly registered user 🙂
- You make an own external client and send me the source and the client for inclusion in next release. Some more are good as well!
The last form is the most wanted!
- Supply following: name, e-mail, address (multiline), country.
- find to optimize XAD: processors and OS versions (all you have).
For programmers using xadmaster.library in own applications (f.e. in virus scanners):
- It would be fine, if you would tell me suggestions or bugs, as implementing xadmaster.library use may show you some problems.
- You must state above conditions in your distribution, at a place, where users can read it.
- find please do not forget: Most time you are users as well, so think about above conditions.
NOTE: This conditions only cover the xadmaster.library! External clients may have different legal state. For example LZX and Zoom both are Freeware. So expect clients to have any legal state. You need to check this for every client. Normally the version string in the client should tell you what type it is.
Disclaimer !
All contained files are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. The entire risk as to the accuracy of the information herein is assumed by you. I do not warrant, guarantee or make any representations regarding the use of included files In terms of correctness, accuracy, reliability, currentness or otherwise. In no event I will be liable for direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages resulting from any defect in the included files.
This package contains algorithms that may be illegal to use in certain countries, states, counties or districts because of local legislation or patent situation. It is the user's responsibility to determine the legality of such algorithms before using them. The fact that this system contains a certain algorithm does not necessarily mean that It is legal to use that algorithm in all parts of the world. I hereby reject any liability or responsibility for any legal consequences resulting from your use of any algorithms.
Using this software should not violate any copyrights, but if this is the case, please inform me any the related parts either will be removed or changed to a non-violating form. I will not be liable for trouble resulting in usage of such parts.
Author :
Please contact me:
���������������������������������������������������������������������
* snail-mail: * e-mail: *
* Dirk Stoecker * stoecker@epost.de *
* Geschwister-Scholl-Str. 10 * dirk@dstoecker.de *
* 0187? Bischofswerda * world wide web: *
* GERMANY * http://www.dstoecker.de/ *
* phone: * pgp key: *
* GERMANY +49 (0)3594/706666 * get from NUN pages or keyservers *
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Homepage :
The XAD system also has its own homepage at
http://www.dstoecker.de/xadmaster.html
and an own mailinglist at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xad/
The homepage contains some information about XAD system and also a link to the mailinglist and other XAD resources.
To send mail to the list use the address xad@yahoogroups.com or use the web interface.
History :
Release 12.1a (30.11.2003):
- Fixed external clients, which did wrong CPU checks, 68020 and 68060
archives only
xadmaster.library 12.1 (28.09.2003)
- Added new id-external made by Stuart replacing the idPAK external.
- Added PackDir client made by Stuart.
- Added Unreal client made by Stuart.
- Added new internal Crunch client. Thanks Ronald van Dijk for the
necessary files.
- The AMOS client replaces the AmosSampleBank external.
- New version of xadUnDisk.
- Updated nearly all clients from Ronald van Dijk.
- Added CD-i client from Ronald van Dijk.
- Added CD-Image client from Ronald van Dijk.
- Added MasterBootRecord client from Ronald van Dijk.
- Added R.A.W. client from Ronald van Dijk.
- Added RigidDiskBlock client from Ronald van Dijk.
- Added Sout client from Ronald van Dijk.
- Added internal Arc CBM and Arc CBM SFX.
xadmaster.library 12.0 (12.08.2002)
- Improved xad2lha tool and fixed a bug in compression routine.
- Improved disk handling of xadUnDisk.
- Added PackIt client.
- Support for broken LZX date till 2005 added. Mikolaj's fixed LZX will
work till 2027 with XAD now and Dr.Titus patched and broken LZX till
2005.
- Added update of MS-TNEF client.
- Added polish docs. Moved localization files into seperate archive.
- Added updated ASCII client. NOTE: I forgot last time, but ASCII is still
BETA and incomplete (but stable enough to be released). Don't wonder if
certain types are detected, but not extracted!
- Bug fixes in exe2arc, Zip client, DMS client, Amiga filesystem client and
StuffIt client. Thanks Ronald van Dijk and J�rgen Klawitter for the reports.
- Added improved version of CBM-8Bit external.
- Added character set conversion functions into the master library and
support of different encodings as well as Unicode. It seems to be very hard
to get a xx.1 version of XAD. Originally planned as V11.1 this charset
stuff forced version increase to V12.
- Added last (important) missing algorithm to StuffIt client. It should be
fully functional now (except of decryption). Also fixed recognition a bit
to detect newer StuffIt files with changed header. Thanks Matthew T.
Russotto for doing the hard work.
- Added TR-DOS client by AmiS.
- Added news and fixes from Ronald van Dijk.
- Added pattern support for xadUnDisk (and thus also limited multifile
support).
xadmaster.library 11.0 (28.12.2001)
- Updated some external clients.
- Added name and link extension types to Tar client.
- Updated some internal clients to support V10 features.
- Updated xadUnTar a lot.
- Added new protection bit handling needed update to version 11.
- Added new bits, flags, tags and xadSpecial structure.
- Added StuffIt and MacBinary support.
- Added DCS disk archiver.
- Added support for direct disk input.
- Added ASCII client done by Stuart Caie.
- Added CBM-8bit client from Ronald van Dijk.
- Added GameDemoFS from Ronald van Dijk.
- Added special clients, which are not added to normal tree. You may install
them yourself if you think they are useful for you.
- Replaced GameDemoFS, Trackmo-DOS, SensiDisk and NiteTimeGameDos with
AmigaGameDemoFS from Ronald van Dijk. Delete the clients in your system
or use the supplied Install script to delete them.
- Added support for PMARC (a CP/M archiver by Yoshihiko Mino) to the LhA
client.
- Added support for Archimedes nspark archives to Arc archiver.
- Fixed LhSFX recognition.
- The xadUnFile, xadUnFileM and xadUnDisk programs support reading from
disks now. This means you can extract filesystem data or create disk-images
as well as copy disks with XAD.
- Added AmosSampBank client from Stuart Caie.
- Replaced Cpio by a more functional internal version which supports the pax
format type (070707) also. Remove the external Cpio file.
- Added SFS client from Andrew Bell.
- Added ISO9660 date structure.
xadmaster.library 10.0 (31.03.2001)
- Added MS-TNEF client by Stuart Caie.
- Added MakeSFX client done by Stuart Caie.
- Added support for S-Pack 1.4 exe files.
- Added new version of NiteTimeGamesDos client.
- Added 2 new DMS-SFX forms.
- Fixed bug in PackDev client reported by Konrad Klar.
- Added SQ client. Thanks Ronald van Dijk for format specification.
- Added CP/M date support.
- Added xadAddFileEntry and xadAddDiskEntry functions and thus
hook support during scanning. The clients will support this step for
step.
- Bumped version to 10.
- Added LU client done by Ronald van Dijk.
- Supports wrong sized DD disk images with Amiga filesystems now.
- Added GDC disk archiver. Thanks Ronald van Dijk for the information.
- Added "destination exists as directory" request.
- Added bugfixed CAB client version.
- Improved Shrink-based clients.
- Added C64 Lha SFX client. Thanks Ronald van Dijk for example files
and format description.
- Added support for slightly changed password encryption of newer InfoZip
programs.
xadmaster.library 9.1 (05.01.2001)
- Updated LightFileSystem client.
- Bugfix in xadUnTar and Tar client.
- Updated some external clients.
- Fixed Enforcer hits in HA client.
- Added COP client.
- Bugfix in LHA and HA client.
xadmaster.library 9.0 (25.11.2000)
- Added "GZip SFX" client.
- Added Wrapster and RPM client done by Stuart Caie.
- Added "NiteTimeGamesDos FS" client done by Ronald van Dijk.
- Added 68060 version of main library.
- Added 68020 and 68060 versions of external clients.
- Splitted distribution into 4 archives.
- Added support for older LHA-Exe format.
- Fixed Enforcer hit in xadUnDisk.
- Fixed LhWarp crash.
- Internal cleanup for some clients. Removed some double algorithms and
added better internal design for some algorithms to make them easier to
use from different clients.
- Added HA client.
- Added xadUnTar tool.
- Added Warp client.
- Added support for SectorLabels (only disk hook allows to use them).
Needed to bump the version to 9, because of new tags, data fields.
Updated clients to pass SectorLabel information. Updated xadUnDisk to
support necessary switch.
- Added updated SensiDisk client and new PAK and LightFileSystem clients
done by Ronald van Dijk.
- Fixed bug in Tar client. Thanks Stuart Caie for the hint.
- Updated CAB client from Stuart Caie.
xadmaster.library 8.0 (29.08.2000)
- Added new SensiDisk client version.
- Added "Microsoft FAT FS" filesystem.
- Added ZAP client done by Stuart Caie.
- Added MSA client done by Stuart Caie.
- Added bzip client done by Stuart Caie and updated Version of bzip2.
- Added "CAB" and "CAB MS-EXE" developed by Stuart Caie. This only misses
one older algorithm, but Stuart is working on that problem.
- Added new version of xadUnFile and xadUnDisk.
- Added DImp client by Stuart Caie.
- Added Ar client by Stuart Caie. Stuart made really lots of new clients.
I'm waiting for other users doing the same. There are so much formats
out there. And you become registered user!
- Updated Arc client supports archives with directories now.
- Added input and output stream hooks
- Added xadGetHookAccess() and xadFreeHookAccess().
- Removed entry sorting for filesystem clients to unify interfaces and for
speed reasons on large harddisk images.
xadmaster.library 7.0 (20.06.2000)
- Some internal fixes.
- Added new bzip2 client version.
- Updated xadUnFile and xadUnFileM.
- Added multiple filesystem support (XAD_STARTCLIENT tag).
- Added new formats to exe2zip and renamed it to exe2arc. Please delete
exe2zip, if it is installed on your computer.
- Added bugfixed RAR-client.
- Added SensiDisk and Trackmo-DOS clients by Ronald van Dijk.
- Added LhWarp client.
- Added Apple Macintosh fork support. This is not required, but may help
using transfer archives from and to Apple computers.
- Added "Savage Compressor" client.
xadmaster.library 6.1 (03.05.2000)
- Added PackDisk client.
- Added "Marc's DiskCruncher" client.
- Added CompDisk and Compress clients.
- xad2lha now supports disk archives.
- Added Ace and "Ace MS-EXE" clients.
xadmaster.library 6.0 (01.04.2000)
- Added SOS client done by Stuart Caie.
- Added xadUnF script to C directory. It allows to call multiarchives a bit
easier, but supports extraction and LIST only. Call it "xadUnF <arc> <dest>"
or "xadUnF <arc> INFO", where <arc> is the basename of the archive without
extensions.
- Better support for single file crunchers like GZip and BZip.
- Added Arj and "Arj MS-EXE" clients.
- Added XADCF_NOCHECKSIZE and new xadLibInfo version 1.4.
- Added "Zip MS-EXE" client.
- Some code cleanups. Now the error returns of some archivers help much more.
- Added BZip2 external client done by Stuart Caie.
- Updated xadUnFile (1.17) and xadUnDisk (1.7).
- Added lots of new flags and definitions to improve information handling.
- Bug fixes in Zip clients.
- Added LhF client.
xadmaster.library 5.0 (19.02.2000)
- Bug fix in multivolume support and date conversion speedup.
- Added Arc and Zoo archivers.
- Updated xadUnDisk to support FORMAT and disk images. It is version 1.6 now.
- Updated xadUnFileM to support patterns (now version 1.15).
- Added "LhA MS-EXE" client.
- Fixed Installer script.
xadmaster.library 4.0 (18.01.2000)
- Added entry information texts to LhA, Zip, AMPK and "AmigaPlus Unpack".
These texts can be displayed using VERBOSE option of xadUnFile.
- Added VERBOSE option to xadUnFile and xadUnFileM.
- The official version now supports keyfiles for registered users.
- Added CrunchDisk client.
- Added xadConvertProtection function.
- Added file extraction from disk images (ADF) and 2 new functions for
that purpose.
- Needed to bump version to 4.
- Added AmigaE modules done by Tomasz Wiszkowski
- Updated xadUnfile and xadUnfileM to 1.14 to support new file extraction
from disk images.
- Added updated RAR client.
xadmaster.library 3.3 (07.12.1999)
- Updated exe2zip to version 1.1
- Fixed QDOS support for Zip files
- Fixed some errors in Zip client
- Updated xadUnFile and xadUnFileM to 1.12
xadmaster.library 3.1 (02.11.1999)
- Updated xadUnFile and xadUnFileM to 1.11
- Added Zip, "WinZip MS-EXE", GZip clients
- Added exe2zip utility
xadmaster.library 3.0 (27.09.1999)
- File input hook now uses buffered IO which reduces needed time a lot.
- Fixed problem with initialisation of external clients
- Added S-Omni, LhSFX and "PCompress PACK" to external Zoom file.
- Updated xadUnFile and xadUnFileM to version 1.10.
- Added "XPK Archive", S-Pack and Shrink clients.
- Added 020+ Version, as Shrink gets a real speedup with that one.
- Added disturbing Shareware-Requester. Sorry folks, but it seems to
be necessary.
- Added xadStripInfo system, auto data seek for unarchiving and new
tag hook access function.
- Updated xadLibInfo tool.
xadmaster.library 2.2 (18.07.1999)
- Added LhA and LhASFX clients
- Updated xadUnFile utility to 1.7 and returned to old style user interface
- Added xadUnFileM utility with new multifile archive interface of last
release.
xadmaster.library 2.1 (29.06.1999)
- some fixes for DMS archiver
- fixed bug in Zoom client
- added RAR archiver done by Mikolaj Calusinski
- added new memory allocation function to master library
- added memory copy function to master library
- Added multiple input file support to master library and xadUnFile tool.
The xadUnFile tool now explicitely needs DEST and FILE keywords and all
extract files must be given using only one pattern. This is due to a
limitition of ReadArgs function.
- added renaming feature in case file exists to xadmaster.library and
xadUnFile tool
- added master internal free stuff for client data and fixed xadLibInfo
to support that new flags
xadmaster.library 1.8 (16.03.1999)
- updated xadUnDisk and xadUnFile tools to version 1.4
- added new "Amiga Plus Unpack" archiver
- added new "AmiPack" archiver
- some little bug fixes and documentation cleanup
xadmaster.library 1.7 (15.02.1999)
- added internal "PackDev" and "MXM-Simple Archive SFX" clients
- added extern Zoom client including "Zoom", "Zoom 5" and "LhPak SFX"
- fixed bug in disk hook
- updated xadUnDisk tool to version 1.3
- LZX client got an external Freeware client
xadmaster.library 1.6 (08.02.1999)
- first official full working release
Thanks !
There are some people I want to thank for their work (in no order):
Georg H�rmann
The former author of xfdmaster.library. This library is an interface
for uncrunching files and gave me the idea to produce xadmaster.library.
Urban Dominik M�ller
The former author of xpkmaster.library. This library inspired me a
lot especially in design of xadmaster.library. Thanks also that he gave
me the sources to improve xpkmaster.library.
Special thanks for managing Aminet and keeping the Amiga community
alive.
Andre R. de la Rocha
The author of xDMS. Thanks for his work and the free sources, which made
the DMS client a lot easier (but it was still a hard job).
An "Anti-Thanks" to the later DMS authors for producing such an
incredible nasty format. Especially DMS 2.04 is a pain.
Ralf Babel
For his "Amiga Guru Book" which helped me a lot during the last 3 years.
And also thanks for the questions he answered (sometimes with a short
mail "See Guru Book page xxx" 🙂
David Tritscher, Dan Fraser
For making the unlzx utility (and the structure comment at end of source
code) which helped me to make the LZX client.
Olaf Barthel
The author of Zoom disk archiver for supplying me the source codes of
Zoom 5.4, to make the Zoom client possible.
Mikolaj Calusinski
For doing the first external client beside my standard clients. He also
got first registered user. And a big thank for his help and really good
ideas how to improve the XAD system.
Brad Rogers
For beeing the second registered user and the first one paying the
registration fee.
The InfoZip guys
For their InfoZip project and the sources which allowed me to make Zip
client. It is impossible to state all the persons here, as this would
double the file size. Check http://sunsite.org.uk/packages/infozip/ or
nearly any other big ftp server for their work.
Herve Dupont
For french translation. This remark is three releases to late, but I did
not forget you. 🙂
Andrew Bell
For giving me the final cause implementing file extraction from ADF files
(disk images). He also sent me source of his UnADF tool to reduce work.
And finally for making the wonderful GUI called Voodoo-X.
Stuart Caie
For doing a lot stuff around XAD and XFD, especially making new clients.
Check his homepage under http://zap.to/kyz/ to see what he made.
Ronald van Dijk
For making lots of new clients for XAD and XFD systems and also for
helping to improve stability and reliability of both systems. Visit
his homepage at http://www.amiga-stuff.com/ to find out about his Amiga
related work.
Matthew T. Russotto
For writing the CAB Quantum and StuffIt Arsenic extraction algorithms.
This saved me and Stuart a lot of work. Hopefully we will see some more
work like this in future. 😉
Mariusz Danilewicz and Daniel Sternik
For Polish translation.
And other persons which should not be forgotten:
fIRE^ROYAL
Well this clever guy distributes a crack skipping my keyfile request.
Still waiting for someone to make a keyfile generator as this will need
some brain work. Skipping the request can do nearly every dumb boy. I
was able to do that when I was 10.
Adkins of Resistance
For the KeyMaker 1.2, which created a XAD version 12 key. This at least
needed some intelligence, althought as always the key only lasts one
release version 🙂 There is too much stuff hidden inside of the keys.
In version 12.1 I made it a bit harder again. Waiting for your response.
