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NAME
     nspark - unpack Archimedes archives

SYNOPSIS
     nspark [ options ] archive [ file ... ]

DESCRIPTION
     The current version of nspark is 1.7.5

     Nspark can unpack the specified  Archimedes-format  archive,
     list its contents or tests its integrity.

     Nspark's main features are:

     o Supports all archive methods used by !Spark 1 and  2.  The
     old  version  didn't  support "Squashing" and used to handle
     "Compressed" archives by using the UNIX uncompress  program.
     The  new  version supports both these and has them built-in,
     allowing easier porting to other OS's.

     o Supports ArcFS format archives.

     o Supports Cyclic Redundancy Checking (CRC).  The  integrity
     of an archive can now be checked without having to unarchive
     it.

     o Supports verbose option to allow archive file  details  to
     be displayed (time/date or exec/load address, size, type).

     o Supports selective file unarchiving, so the whole  archive
     needn't be unarchived if not all the files are wanted).

     o Supports user-prompting before overwriting a file,  allow-
     ing the user to either (1) overwrite the file, (2) overwrite
     all the files, (3) unarchive the file to a  different  name,
     or (4) not to unarchive the file at all.

     o Supports file-stamping so the date and time of  the  file,
     when  unarchived,  matches the date and time it was archived
     (not 4.2BSD or SysV.2 as these systems  lack  vital  library
     functions).

     I have not included support for  creating  !Spark  archives,
     and  I  am  not  really sure if I need to as: (1) !Spark for
     RISC OS is cheap (#5.99 from David Pilling), (2)  !SparkPlug
     can  unpack archives created with zip (which is available in
     source form for UNIX, VMS and MSDOS), and (3) it's a lot  of
     work. Let me know what you think.

     Options:

     -x        Extract the given file, or all files if  none  are



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               specified.

     -u        Equivalent to -x.

     -t        Test archive integrity  by  simulating  extraction
               and checking the CRCs (Cyclic Redundancy Checks).

     -l        List archive contents.

     -q        Quiet.  Displays less  information  when  listing,
               testing or extracting.

     -f        Force file overwrite if a file already exists with
               the  same  name as the one being extracted. If not
               using -f then you are prompted whether you want to
               overwrite  the original, skip this file, give it a
               different name, or overwrite this and  all  others
               that already exist.

     -s        No filestamp. Does  not  set  the  timestamp  when
               extracting files.

     -v        Verbose.   Gives  full  details  when  listing  or
               extracting archives.

     -R        Retry if archive is corrupt.  If a bad  header  is
               found  then  nspark  will search the archive until
               another header if found, rather than giving up.

     -L<name>  Set name of log file to name.

     -T        Append file type to name, in the same way  as  Tar
               or  NFS.   For  example Text files (filetype &FFF)
               have ,fff appended when extracted.

     -C        Create lowercase filenames.   Useful  on  machines
               where  the  case  of filenames is significant (eg.
               UNIX), this option forces all extracted  filenames
               to be lowercase.

BUGS
     Filestamping is not supported under 4.2BSD or SysV2  (as  no
     mktime(3)  or  timelocal(3) functions exist under these sys-
     tems).  To correct this I could write my own or port the one
     from 386BSD (save that for a rainy day).

     Doesn't support MSDOS yet.  Working on that.

     If compiled with GCC (v1.42) it core dumps  when  trying  to
     test  (or unarchive ?) a corrupt archive file.  This doesn't
     happen when compiled with the UNIX pcc.




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NOTES
     Nspark is in the public domain.  It is currently being main-
     tained by arb (arb@comp.lancs.ac.uk).

SEE ALSO
     arcfs(5), spark(5).

AUTHOR
     Andy   Duplain,   BT   Customer   Systems,   Brighton,   UK.
     (duplain@btcs.bt.co.uk)

CONTRIBUTORS
     Improvements from version 1.5, including ArcFS  support,  by
     Andrew Brooks (arb@compl.ancs.ac.uk).

     Manual    pages    originally     supplied     by     Duncan
     (m91dps@ecs.oxford.ac.uk).

     Suggestions    for     improvement     by     Tom     Tromey
     (tromey@busco.lanl.gov).

     Windows NT support by Alun Jones (auj@aber.ac.uk).

































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