Archiving using the zip in Mac OSX

Question

Level 1

29 points

Archiving using the zip in Mac OSX

I am using Mac OSX 10.4.3

I am curious about the archives produced by the Mac OSX Tiger. It turns the archives into zip files. I have seen zip files used by widows users for years.

My main question is this. How stable are the zip archives that Mac OSX produce?

I cannot find any comments nor any data on this feature.

Does it replace Allume Stuffit for most users?

Is this the same feature that used to be found in the zipit shareware program?
That is a great program as well.

If I archive valuable data to dvd will it break?

I don't know enough about this feature to place all my data in the zip format, but it would be a great feature if I could.

For now when I do use it, I also unpack everything before I trust it.
This is the best assurance I can come up with for now.

Thank you for any help and references for my inquiry.
It would certainly be a big help.

Mark

Posted on Nov 6, 2005 5:04 PM

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Answer 1

macjack

Level 10

111,242 points

Nov 6, 2005 5:16 PM in response to PARYMA

Hi Mark, archive by zipping through the system always worked well for me.

There is one caveat but that seems to be for servers.

You will still need Stuffit to download Stuffed files.

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Answer 2

PARYMA Author

Level 1

29 points

Nov 6, 2005 7:22 PM in response to macjack

Thank you macjack,

That is good assurance to know that mac users trust this feature.

So far I've only had one or two zipped files that were corrupted.

Try zipit.
The nice thing about zipit is that you can open one file at a time instead of the whole folder.

Quite frankly, I'm surprised my old B&W G3 machine can even run Mac OSX to begin with. And for the most part runs fairly quick.
My problem is trying to run the more modern applications.
Several now require at least 500mghtz.

Mark

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Answer 3

Nov 6, 2005 9:31 PM in response to PARYMA

Zips are just as useful as Stuffit files but are an open format, and windows users can use them too without special software.

Zips made on Tiger contain all the data you selected, plus icons.

They are quite safe for archive work to DVD etc. and will still be supported by every OS under the sun way into the future, unlike Stuffit which may die off if its company does. Open formats are always to be preferred.

I have been using them myself for about 15 years!

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Answer 4

PARYMA Author

Level 1

29 points

Nov 6, 2005 9:44 PM in response to John Muir

John,

Thank you for your support.
I have been using Apple machines since about 92.
I have used stuffit for year, but now that I am using Tiger I found this archiving under the file title.
I tried it and to my surprise, it created a zip file.
It was surprising because I always thought of zip files to be a windows only utility.
It is exciting to discover such a handy utility which is free with Tiger.
When I started to research it, I couldn't find any data about it in the Apple support site.
That is when I started to wonder if it is even safe to use or if it was so new that perhaps it may be 'buggy.'

I have been using it some, but still cautious.
I can't help but unpack what I zipped up just to see if it really works or not.
So far, so good.

When I am hearing reports from other users, I feel better now about using it.

Thanks again.
Mark

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Answer 5

Nov 6, 2005 9:49 PM in response to PARYMA

No problem, glad to be of help.

I've used zips on Macs, Windows and DOS since as long as I can remember.
I don't think my Apple II could do them though but I may be wrong. 😉

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Answer 6

Rafe H.

Level 5

7,091 points

Nov 6, 2005 9:56 PM in response to PARYMA

The Acknowledgements in the associated command-line tool says a lot about the version of zip that OS X uses (note that Phil Katz is the originator of the ZIP format, and he wrote PKZip):

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to R. P. Byrne for his Shrink.Pas program, which inspired
this project, and from which the shrink algorithm was stolen; to
Phil Katz for placing in the public domain the zip file format,
compression format, and .ZIP filename extension, and for accept-
ing minor changes to the file format...

Info-ZIP 14 August 1999 (v2.3) ZIP(1L)

Also, did you know there's a Spotlight Plugin for Zip archives, so that Spotlight can search within a Zip Archive without you needing to decompress it first?

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Answer 7

Nov 7, 2005 7:18 AM in response to Rafe H.

Yes, I used to use pkzip.exe and pkunzip.exe back in the old days.

And that Spotlight plugin is very useful and much advised for Tiger users!

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