Command line Zip question....

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Level 6

9,184 points

Command line Zip question....

I'm new to Tiger and it seems that the zip that's included with Tiger is not aware of resource forks, but that's kind of contradicted by the man page. The man page says you can use "-df" to include only the data fork of the files.

But this command:

zip -df twcpages twcpages

gives this result:

zip error: Invalid command arguments (specify just one action)

Is this just a bug in the documentation?

I'm cool with it not being aware of the resource forks, by the way, as that's the result I'm after. I'm just a bit confused by the man page is all.

charlie

PowerBook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Posted on Nov 22, 2005 2:12 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 22, 2005 3:15 PM in response to Charles Minow

Do you have fink installed? Fink installs some commands with the same names as those in OS X, and they might have different features enabled. You can use '/usr/bin/zip' instead of just 'zip' to get Apple's if you have fink installed.

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Answer 2

Charles Minow Author

Level 6

9,184 points

Nov 22, 2005 6:00 PM in response to Daniel Macks

Do you have fink installed?

No, no fink. I've only got the one zip installed.

I get the same error on a Linux server, so maybe it has something to do with classic Mac OS, and not OS X:

<pre> -df [MacOS] Include only data-fork of files zipped into the archive.
Good for exporting files to foreign operating-systems.
Resource-forks will be ignored at all.</pre>

Or I'm just misunderstanding what that means...

charlie

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Answer 3

Jun T.

Level 4

2,185 points

Nov 22, 2005 9:00 PM in response to Charles Minow

Hi Charlie,

I think the /usr/bin/zip installed in MacOSX is a plain UNIX version.

I've looked into the source code of zip (can be downloaded from here), and my impression is that the [MacOS] in the manpage means MacOS9. It seems there was a veriosn of zip for OS9 which ran in a "command window" ("Sioux" implemented Metroworks, I guess) and did have an option -df.

PowerMac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

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Answer 4

Charles Minow Author

Level 6

9,184 points

Nov 22, 2005 10:13 PM in response to Jun T.

Hi Jun--

I've looked into the source code of zip (can be
downloaded from here), and my impression is that the
[MacOS] in the manpage means MacOS9. It seems there
was a veriosn of zip for OS9 which ran in a "command
window" ("Sioux" implemented Metroworks, I guess) and
did have an option -df.

That makes sense now that I look at the source code. I see the references to the "Sioux" stuff, and even recognize some of the "More Files" stuff in the MacOS parts of the code. So I bet you're right, it's probably for the MacOS 9 port...

best,

charlie

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