                                                 WednesDay, February 25, 1998

  *******************************************************************
   R o m a n i a n   A r  c h i v e r   e X p e r t   T o o l K i t
  ************************* M a n u a l *****************************


  C    o     n     t     e     n     t      s

  0) Short description!
  1) Introduction
  2) How to use it
  3) Password protected archives
  4) Compression method
  5) Adding a file
  6) The break window
  7) Testing a file within an archive
  8) Extracting from an archive
  9) Deleting a file
 10) RAX Menu
 11) Multi-volume archives
 12) Commentated archives
 13) Exception lists
 14) Normal panel
 15) Archive panel
 16) Alt - commands
 17) The enlisting window
 18) Changing the current Disk
 19) How to Log errors in the file
 20) Help
 21) The about window
 22) The selection window
 23) The unselection window
 24) Command line arguments
 25) Searching a file within an archive
 26) Auto Rack - sfx manual.

     26.1) Description
     26.2) Options
     26.3) Messages
     26.4) Observations
     26.5) SFX parameters


  The following trademarks are copyrigthed by their owners :

   ARJ 2.50 SHAREWARE  Copyright (c) 1990-95 ARJ Software.  Oct 31 1995.

   RAR 2.00 beta       Copyright (c) 1993-96 Eugene Roshal  27 March 1996

   PKZIP (R)   FAST!   Create/Update Utility   Version 2.04g   02-01-93
   Copr. 1989-1993 PKWARE Inc.  All Rights Reserved.  Registered Version
   PKZIP Reg. U.S. Pat. and Tm. Off.   Patent No. 5,051,745

   UltraCompressor II (tm) revision 3 PRO
   (c) 1991-1995, Ad Infinitum Programs, all rights reserved

   LHA version 2.55b   Copyright (c) Haruyasu Yoshizaki, 1988-92,  11/24/92

   ARC - Archive utility, Version 6.02, created in January of 1989
   Copyright 1985-89 by System Enhancement Associates, Inc.; 

   Zoo - Copyright (c) Rahul Dhesi


   GeCAD registred trademarks:
    GeCAD, GeCAD Fast Commander, RAX, Romanian Archiver eXpert Toolkit.


                  RAX version 1.02

 0) Short description

                A Data Compression Program
        -------------------------------------------------------------

        RAX is a fast and compact data compression program. The compression &
   decompression engines have been written entirely in 80286 assembly, so it
   runs faster than many other archivers. It uses a compression method based
   on sliding window dictionary plus static huffman encoding, similar to
   LHA/PKZIP/ARJ, plus an advanced data prediction algorithm.

        1.  Files included in RAX 1.02
        ===============================

        RAX.EXE        Dos - Version executable file
        UKMANUAL.DOC   RAX documentation file
        AUTORAX.EXE    SFX file creator.

        2.  System requirements
        ===============================

        80286 (PC/AT) and above
        Minimum conventional memory:
        480k for updating/creating archives
        478k for extracting/testing archives


 1) Introduction

               DATA COMPRESSION ALGORITHMS : INTRODUCTION
            ====================================================

     Much of the typical  modem  user's  online  time  is  spent performing
 uploads or  downloads of files from BBS's, Online Services like Compuserve
 or GEnie, or Information  Networks like  Usenet or  Internet.   Given that
 this  always  takes  up  a  lot  of time, and usually costs a considerable
 amount of money, the need to  shorten the  time necessary  to perform file
 transfers, and  other modem  applications has  always been prevalent.  One
 innovation in this field has been  the development  of advanced Algorithms
 for compacting,  or compressing  data so  it takes up much less space, and
 packing multiple files into one archive, or data  file, so  many files may
 be sent at one time.

     The current technology, an offspring of data encryption methods used
 in World War II, reduces the time it  takes to  transfer a  file through a
 modem, by  reducing the  size of the data itself.  Given the proliferation
 of many data compression methods (ARC, PKZIP, ZOO, LHARC, RAR,..) that
 try  to  provide  the  most efficient method of data compression,
 the topic has always been controversial in nature.


   RAX is a Data Compression Program. It gathers data files, and presses
 them into a single or more pieces of data. The compressed parts which
 result from the compression method, may be easily Uncompressed back to
 the originals.
   So, there is no change in the files number but only in their size. That
 means that, for instance, if a bunch of files occupied, let's say 4Megs
 of space, after compression has been performed, they may occupy less than
 10Megs, and may be even around 1Meg.


   Using RAX to compress data is really simple. The user may use either the
 keyboard or the mouse, as the user pleases.


 RAX - Romanian Archiver eXpertĻ
                        Name           Size     Date    Time               
 ĺ
 Produced by GeCAD srlchkdsk    exe  2809609-08-9621-55-34  Romanian 
 Written by Sabin Belucommand   com  9381209-08-9621-56-28RAX  
   Shareware Version  config    sys     4514-12-9704-19-38        
                      debug     exe  2055409-08-9621-56-56      
   ALT - Commands  drvspace  bin  6527109-08-9622-17-36   
  Password     No     ebd       sys      009-12-9722-04-08          
  Method       Normal edit      com  6988611-07-9510-50-00 Archiver 
  Log errors   No     fdisk     exe  6311609-08-9621-58-28   
  Comment File No     format    com  4954309-08-9622-43-12       
  Exceptions   No     himem     sys  3319109-08-9622-14-44       
  Volumes      None   io        sys 21483609-08-9621-55-06   
  Save Setup          msdos     sys      909-12-9722-04-04          
   regedit   exe 10598410-08-9614-51-14 eXpert   
     Version 1.02     scandisk  exe 14235312-08-9615-50-00   
   scandisk  ini   733205-06-9601-53-38       
                      smartdrv  exe  4486712-08-9615-50-00       
  Free memory    131K sys       com  1896709-08-9622-05-32    
 ĺ
   chkdsk.exe                                      A:                 
 [ A B C D E ]ͼ
 1Help 2Add 3Test 4Extract 5Lock 6Move 7Volumes 8Erase 9Menu 10Exit
                                     
                         
                  
           
   Name ٳ  Bellow this is the File Name of the FILE or DIRECTORY,
                selected or not.
   Size ٳ  Bellow this is the File Size of the FILE, in bytes or the
                 strings "UP - DIR", or "SUB-DIR", if the DIRECTORY is
                 either an upper or lower directory.
   Date ٳ  Bellow this is the Date of the FILE or DIRECTORY,
                  selected or not.
   Time   Bellow this is the Time of the FILE or DIRECTORY,
                   selected or not.

   The latter one will show the current status of the user setting's
  plus some info about the system.

  2) Password protected archives

   When Password is "Enabled", every archive will be encrypted using
  the current password, and every CRC test will be done using the
  current password.

   The user may access Password pressing ALT-P or selecting "Set Password"
  from RAX Menu (F9). The ALT commands will too, be discussed later.

   When accessing Password the must enter a password in the following window:

    Enter The Password Ļ
                                                                 
    **********_                                                  
                                                                 
          Ok                        Cancel     
                                         
   ͼ

   Here the stars represent the letters within the user's password,
  masked as no one but the user should know the real password,
  for instance "***" masks "122" !

   After hitting "Enter" to accept it, a second window will appear,
  with the title " Please reenter Your Password ", in order to check
  the validity of the password.  This is very needed and almost beneficial,
  since this way we are sure that the user won't forget the password!

   The password protection is "smelled" every time the user enters in a
  password protected archive, and this is showed in the archive Panel
  this way:
   "Encryption    Present"

  *NOTE:

   Since all the archive files have the same password set by "Password"
  feature, updating such archive with or with out password, is forbidden.

  Deleting files from password protected archives is allowed.

   Error Ļ
     Can not UPDATE protected archives   
    or non-protected with new password   
  ͼ

   3) Compression method

   Allows the user to dial up some extra percents or extra speed,
  every one of those two being in a complete dependency one with another :
  - if the use chooses to compress faster, he loses in compactness.
  - if the use chooses to compress better, he loses in time
   processing and so on.

   The user may too, access "Compression level" with a mouse click on
  its' row, or pressing ALT-C.

   When accessing password, the following Menu window will appear:

     Method Ļ
       Fastest     There are 8 compression methods in RAX archiver.
       Faster      Every one of them is tuned to satisfy the user needs
       Fast        for speed or for compression ratio.
       Normal   
       Good         RAX employs a LHA/PKZIP/ARJ/RAR similar kind of
       Better      sliding dictionary plus static-huffman on the offsets.
       Tight        A compression index controls the extent to which
       Max         strings are searched in the dictionary. The index
    [*]ͼ   for each compression option is as follows:
      
      > Click here to close the window.
               This feature is available to
               all dialog windows.

 Compression Method
 ------------------------
 SUPER-FAST - searches for up to    4 duplicated strings into the dictionary,
                using 2 Huffman Trees.
 FASTER     - searches for up to   12 duplicated strings into the dictionary,
                using 2 Huffman Trees.
 FAST       - searches for up to   32 duplicated strings into the dictionary.
                using 2 Huffman Trees.
 NORMAL     - searches for up to   40 duplicated strings into the dictionary,
                using 2 Huffman Trees.
 GOOD       - searches for up to  128 duplicated strings into the dictionary,
                using 2 Huffman Trees.
 BETTER     - searches for up to 1024 duplicated strings into the dictionary,
                using 3 Huffman Trees.
 TIGHT      - searches for up to 2048 duplicated strings into the dictionary,
                using 3 Huffman Trees.
 MAX        - searches for up to 4096 duplicated strings into the dictionary,
                using 3 Huffman Trees.


    As the user may see there is a "slightly big" difference between the
  first and the last method of compression.

    So the user may see that the ratios are very different from a file to
  another, but as a whole, I may say that this method will act better
  than the other because all depends on the file type.

    Another interesting fact is that the NORMAL method usually beat every
  other method regarding their compression time and ratio. It is tuned to
  be the most used and the best as a TIME versus RATIO gain.

    Let's take a look on PIC from the famous Calgary Corpus, for instance:

  Original Size|     Size after     | Ratio | Compression | Decompression
  -----------------------------------------------------------------------
  PIC 513,216  | 67,890  Super Fast | 13.2% |   1.7 sec   |     1.0  sec
               | 65,691  Faster     | 12.8% |   1.8 sec   |     1.0  sec
               | 64,152  Fast       | 12.5% |   1.9 sec   |     1.1  sec
               | 59,533  Normal     | 11.6% |   2.0 sec   |     1.1  sec
               | 58,506  Good       | 11.4% |   2.6 sec   |     1.0  sec
               | 55,940  Better     | 10.9% |   5.1 sec   |     0.17 sec
               | 53,887  Tight      | 10.5% |   8.4 sec   |     0.16 sec
               | 53,887  Max        | 10.5% |  12.1 sec   |     0.15 sec

    As the user may see the NORMAL method is very close (+1%) to the
  ENTROPY ratio assured by the MAX method, theoretically, and is very far by 
  the Super-FAST ratio (-7%) giving an excellent TIME/RATIO report.

    So, every method is tuned to get around 1-3% gain against the previous
  one,  but, may be I repeat myself, this is VERY dependent on the file type.
  Here is an overall, but short review of compression possibilities:

    English Language         3.2 : 1
    Binary Executable        1.9 : 1
    Database                 5.1 : 1
    Spreadsheet              2.9 : 1
    Program Source Code      2.8 : 1
    CAD Data                 4.3 : 1
    Desktop Publishing       3.2 : 1
    --------------------------------
    Overall       3.342857142857 : 1


 5) Add a file

   After pressing F2, or selecting ADD from the RAX MENU the user will
 see this window

  Add To Archive Ļ
                                                                         
  SQUEE.rax                                                              
                                                                         
   Continua             [ ]  Move Files               Stop 
                                                 
 [*]ͼ

  where the user is invited to enter the desired name of the archive file.

  If no files are inserted using '+' key, then the name that appear in this
 window will be:
  - the name of the directory + the extension "RAX" from the current position,
      which might overwrite the directories' extension if present.
  - the name of the file + the extension "RAX" from the current position,
      which may overwrite the file's extension if present.

  If some files are inserted, then the name that appear in this window will
 be the name of the upper directory those files belong to.

  The user may press ESC to abort F2's action even if he modified
 the name that on the input line, so that no action will be done.
  If the user presses ENTER, on the screen will appear 3 windows like these,
 for example.

  The first and the biggest one will show the user 4 different items:

    The name of the archive which has just been created or appended, for
      instance "POC.RAX", which has all the files from the directory "POC".
   The number of files which will be compressed, in advanced, so the user
     does not have to wait for hours and then find out that it
     compressed 11,110 files. This, in our example, appear like
     "Building Items List To Encode :  11" item(s) found."
   The name of each file which is compressed and the compressed ratio.
  General info about the number of files processed, number of files, ..
 
 
     Compressing Ļ
 ĺ Creating RAX archive ALLFILES.RAX                                
 ĺ Building list :  3 found,  0 excepted.                           
         Shareware Version.                                            
         Using  Normal  method.                                        
  Adding    CUBU.CPP                                        29.3% 
     Adding    CUBU.EXE                                        63.3% 
     Adding    ELIPSA.CPP                                      29.3% 
 Done, 3 file(s) processed 0.8 sec,  3.0 files/se                 
        ͼ


    The last two windows will appear on the bottom of the screen.
    The former one is called the Active Item window:
    It has two forms:

  a)

   Active Ļ  During any action: adding,
   SET.C                      26%   extracting, testing ..., it will
   ۰   show the user the name of the
  ͼ  currently processed file and
   there will be two different bar percents.

   A green one which represents the percent which is currently read from the
  file and a yellow one which will indicate the percent of the added data
  in the archive.

  b) the last window is called the Total items window, and it shows the
  number of all the files being processed till that moment. It may be less
  than 100% if a current file is being processed but it has to be 100% in
  the end.

   If the final percent is not 100%, there surely was one of these errors
    - a file could not be opened for read (SHARING error);
    - insufficient space to write the compressed file in the archive.

   Anyway an error window will appear and the error will be briefly
  explained.
   The Total window shows the number of files that were processed till that
  moment.

  TotalĻ If there is only one selected file, the
   Files 11    out of 11     100%  percent is calculating exactly like the
     Active percent. So, 50% means,
  ͼ in this case, that only 1/2 (a half)
  of the file is completed.
         ----

  When there are more inserted files, the percent depends on the number
 of files processed. So, 50% means, in this case, that only 1/2 (a half)
 of the total files was processed.
              -----

  Inside the Add window the "[_] Move Files" Checkbox may be spotted easily.
  This is selected by moving the mouse on it's row and pressing a button, or
 hitting the space key.

  When this option is set, the files will no longer be Added but Moved to
 archive. "Moved" to archive means "Added + Deleted".

  So after adding the file to archive, this is deleted. Here is an example:

  "Adding    ARCSTUF.H  94% "  File ARCSTUF.H was moved, Added and
  "Deleting  ARCSTUF.H      "     then deleted.
  "Adding    ARHFIND.C  28% "  File ARHFIND.C was moved.
  "Deleting  ARHFIND.C      " 
  "Adding    ARHFIND.H  53% "  File ARHFIND.H was moved.
  "Deleting  ARHFIND.H      " 

  After moving the files, the user will no longer access these files.
  The Unerase (Undelete) command will be useful.

  6) The Break window

   Every time the program does something, a simple key-hit may pause
  the process by printing these window on the screen. This is called the
   Pause window. The two buttons are just like the others, mouse sensitive,
  so only moving the mouse pointer above the button, it selects it.

   The message displayed inside the window, "Abort Testing?" for instance,
  differ and depends very much on the interrupted operation.

   Please Confirm Ļ   There are more other texts which
                                  will be displayed like "Abort Enlisting?"
          Abort Testing?          when the file enlisting operation is
                                  paused by a key press.
   Resume       Abort 
               The adding operation may be paused, too.
  ͼ

 and then the message will be "Abort Compressing?". Usually the text refers
 to the title of the operation. This is why, when extracting files, the text
 will say "Abort Extracting?".

   But it does not matter what the text says when the user interrupted it!
   The idea is that pressing the first button, the "Resume" button means that
 the operation will continue just like nothing had happened.
   Pressing the second button, the "Abort" button, will stop the operation,
 and it does not matter what operation the program was performing,
 since it was stopped.


   7)  Testing a file

  The "Test" Command is one of the most important tasks that may be performed
 using an archiver. This operation should be performed after every Copy/Move/
 Add command, because it will tell the user for sure if the files within the
 archive WILL or WILL NOT be decompressed OK.

  If the "Test" command fails it will print a message like this:
  " Testing COPY\A1.TXT                                         CRC BAD!"
  If the "Test" command goes ok, it will print a message like:
  " Testing COPY\A1.TXT                                         CRC Ok!"

  The fail in testing a file is very close related to these 3 cases:

  1) A disk READ / WRITE Failure!
  2) An incorrect Password!
  3) Previous damage of the archive!
  4) An archive volume is missing!

  So:

  1) When testing, the program reads from a disk so if the data is corrupted
  probably from a bad sector on that disk, the program notice that error and
  it will show an error window.

  2) Sometimes, and this is the most frequent reason after bad sectors, the
  user misspell the password required to extract its files.
     Since the compression engine uses that password to garble data when
  compressing files, it will not be able to remake the original path since
  the input (the password) is not the correct one.

  3) The archive is probably an old one and encountered a writing error when
  it was created.

  4) Please check the error window from "VOLUME ARCHIVES".

  8) Extracting from an archive

  *NOTE: The F4(Extract) and F3(test) capabilities are available only when
  the user is in "THE ARCHIVE PANEL".

  The "Extract" command is one of the frequently used commands that may be
 performed using an archiver. Here is what happens when the user presses F4,
 or when the user selects the Extraction command from the F9 Menu:

  The following window appears:

   Extract Files To Ļ
                                                                       
   C:\BC31\BIN\WORK\RAX\BGI\                                           
                                                                       
    Proceed        [_]  Xtract with PathNames     Cancel  
                                               
  ͼ

  The first string "C:\BC31\..." is on an Input Line, represents the current
 directory. If the files are wished to be extracted there, a single ENTER, or
 a Click on "Proceed" is enough.

  When another directory is needed to host the files, the user may modify
 that string and write the host directory. If the directory fill is not well
 written, then two Error windows will appear;

   Error Ļ
    Cannot create file         The first will indicate a write error :
      G:\\\4\DESKTOP.C         "Can not write file G:\\\4\DESKTOP.C",
                               pointing that the directory
          OK            "G:\\\4\" could not be created,
                     or "G:" drive is not responding.
  ͼ

 And the second error will tell us about the fact that the inserted path is
 invalid. You should press 'Cancel' to retype again the correct path.
  Path Ļ
         G:\\\4\DESKTOP.C        Is not Valid, CONTINUE ?  
                                                           
        Yes                       Cancel      
                                       
 ͼ


 If the extracted file already exists, a window expresses this fact
 with four buttons:

  Exist Ļ
            D:\BUGS.GFC          Already Exist,  OVERWRITE? 
                                                            
  Yes    No   All    Cancel   
                    
 ͼ

 If the first button, the "Yes" button, is selected then the file is
 overwritten. The user should pay attention because the user may
 overwrite a newer file with an older one.

 If the second button, the "No" button, is selected then the file is not
 overwritten, but skipped and the decoder searches for the next file.
 It may even search in the next volumes, if the file is a broken file.
 Please check "VOLUME ARCHIVES".

 The third button the "All" button, is the most dangerous one, because
 pressing it means that ALL the files will be OVERWRITTEN with no FURTHER
 notice. So, the user should be 100% sure that is OK to overwrite all the
 files from the current file till the end of the archive, and till the end
 of the volumes, if the archive was a volume one.

 The last buttons, the "Cancel" button, stops extracting the files.

 *NOTE:
  Multiple directories may be created, for instance if only directory
 "C:\TEMP" exists, and the user has just entered "C:\TEMP\A\B\C", the
 extracting engine will very well create 1,2,3. ... and how many are
 required, in our example 3 directories "A\B\C" will be created.

  When everything is ok, the following message will be printed:
  " Extracting to C:\TEMP\COPY\A1.TXT                               CRC Ok!"
  If the "Extract" command goes wrong, the following message will be printed:
  " Extracting to C:\TEMP\COPY\A1.TXT                               CRC BAD!"

  The fail in extracting a file is very close related to the very 3 cases
  from  "Test" command

  1) A  disk READ / WRITE Failure!
  2) An incorrect Password!
  3) Previous damage of the archive!
  4) An archive volume is missing!
  with the same explanations as above!

  9) Deleting a file

  There are two distinct but rather similar commands: erasing a file from a
  directory and erasing an archive file.
  Anyway, the user may insert files and directories, too, but the procedure
  will only erase files, not DIRECTORIES, even if they are empty!

  After inserting some files, a warning window will appear,

   Please Confirm Ļ
                                                   in order to confirm
       Do the user wish to delete the file(s)?     if the user really WISH
                                                   those files to be
      Yes                 No      DELETED!
                             
  ͼ
 !! No other warnings will appear after this, but the user may press any
 key and the erasing process will pause, and the Pause window will appear
 (please see Pause Window).

 When the user is not in an archive, the following message will indicate
 the user that the file was or not, deleted Ok!

   Delete Items Ļ  Delete Items Ļ
              CONFIG.SYS                        CONFIG.SYS            
       Was successfully deleted            Could NOT be DELETED       
  ͼ ͼ

 When deleting some archive files, the same Erase Window will appear with its two
 buttons : "Yes" and  "Cancel".

 Pressing "Yes" will start the erasing procedure not to erase but to choose
 among all the archive files, and let only the non selected ones in the new
 archive. Here is this peculiar window :

   Delete Items Ļ    The last string shows which file
                WAVES.BMP                 will be kept in the archive
         Was succesfully deleted          (recopied as compressed files)
                Skipping                  and the first string shows which
              TRIANG_1.BMP                file will no longer be kept in
  ͼ    the newly - created archive.

   For instance,  WAVES.BMP was removed from the archive, and TRIANG_1.BMP
  was kept (skipped by the erase engine) in the archive for further study!

   After erasing some files, the info about the archive itself is update
  to remove all the data that belonged to the deleted files :

    number of files (those before erasing - the erased files)
   total length of files (files size before erasing minus the size
      of the erased files)
    which is the size of all the archived files before compressing.
  total length of archive (archive size before erasing minus the
     size of the erased files)
   which is the packed size of all the files.
 the global ratio (total length / packed length)

 "Files                       40"
 "Total length           5471340"
 "Packed length           837698"
 "Global ratio               15%"

  Please check out  "ARCHIVE PANEL", for more information.

  10)  RAX Menu

  Pressing F9 will make the Menu Window to appear.

   RAX MENU Ļ
    Help                    F1  
    Add                     F2    It shows all that RAX archiver may do
    Test                    F3   in the integrated development interface.
    Extract                 F4    The first column shows the command that
    Lock archive            F5   may be accessed pressing what the second
    Move files              F6   column shows.
    Set volume              F7  
    Erase file              F8    For instance, in order to select
    Set comment file     ALT-C   exception list, the user should press
    Select disk          ALT-D   ALT followed by pressing E [ALT - E];
    Exception list       ALT-E  
    Look for a file      ALT-F    The command line parameters are not
    Set log file         ALT-L   showedin this menu.
    Select method        ALT-M  
    Set password         ALT-P  
    Save setup           ALT-S  
    Set volume           ALT-V  
    Exit RAX               F10  
  [*]ͼ
    
    > Click here to put the window away.
                     The feature is available to all dialog
                     windows.

   11) Multi - Volume archives

   One of the most important feature of this archiver is that it allows the
  creation of Multi - Volumed - Archives.
   The idea is very simple and very important, too.
   It is used only for moving data from one place to another in fixed chunks
  that may be easily copied on a diskette or a smaller disk.

   So, when a compressed file exceeds the limit of the chosen volume, the
  encoder splits the archived file and created another archive, a volume
  one, with the rest of the file, just like in this example :

  "Creating RAX Archive TCP.RAX                                           "
  "Building Items List To Encode :  1 item(s) found,  0 item(s) excepted. "
  "  Adding    TCP.EXE                              220885  44951      20%"
  "  Creating RAX Volume Archive TCP.X00                                   "
  "  Adding    TCP.EXE                                                  44%"
  "Done, 1 file(s) processed 1.5 sec,  0.0 files / sec.                   "

   The file TCP.exe, which "weigths" 220885bytes, had to be compressed in a
  50K bytes archive. Since the encoder managed to create only a 98K bytes
  archive, it splits the archive in two different archives called.

      TCP.EXE [220885] -->                 TCP.RAX  [51210]
                                           TCP.X00  [47046]
      -----------------------------------------------------
      TCP.EXE [220885] -->         Total compressed [98256]

  This is how archives bigger than a certain fixed limit, may be moved using
 more data supports, like diskettes or smaller zip drives, having the desired
 dimension.
  Here is the size of the volume data that may be chose to limit the archive
 to grow above a certain dimension.


  VolumesĻ  And here is all the fixed length of the volume archives
     None      that may be used to created them.
     Auto     "Auto" is the maximum size allowed by the current disk minus
      50 K    2Kbytes ( for safety).
      70 K    The names of the created archives are these(suppose the
     100 K     archive name is as above TCP.RAX).
     200 K  
     360 K    TCP.RAX     After 100 volume archives the letter 'K'
     720 K    TCP.X00     is no longer kept so, check it out:
    1,20 M    TCP.X01
    1,44 M    TCP.X02     TCP.100
    2,88 M    .........   TCP.101
  [*]ͼ  ........    .......
                TCP.X99     TCP.999

    The maximum  number of multi-volume archives is 1001, RAX + 0..999,
 so if the size of the Compressed files is to big, there is no need to set
 the size to such a low number likes 50K, or 70K.

  The 1.2 Megs (approximate 1258291 bytes) and 1.4 Megs (approximately
  1468006 bytes) are the most common used, and may not exceed 1001 archives,
 because the size of the total compressed files will be enormous, without
 saying about the size of the files before compression.

   Every archive called .Xxx or .xxx, or x may be between 0..9 is immediately
 recognized as a RAX archive and this fact is noted in the right screen where
 these strings appear:

  " Archive                TCP.RAX "  or " Archive          TCP.X00 "
  " Commentary              No "
  " Volumes                Present "  <-  the volumed property is indicated

   every time a Volume Archive is accessed.

   When entering a Volume Archive, there are four different types of files.
    In a Normal Archive, with no space limit, the only type of the compressed
  files were the normal one.
    In a Volume Archive, the four types of files are :

   1) Normal file
   2) Broken file that continues in the next volume.
   3) Broken file that continues in the previous volume.
   4) Broken file that continues in the previous and in the next volume.

   These last 3 types of files have different printing colors, and posses a
  peculiar sign. They are called "Broken Files", because there are spanned
  across many archives.

  Let's see these example:

     
                             <RETURN>     UPDIR           
      Archive        Kit.RAX arcstuf   obj     1273        943 74.1
      Commentary          No arhfind   bak    11169       3294 29.5
      Volumes        Present arhfind   c      11006       3246 29.5
      Files                4 bccr      exe   616448     51165  8.3

     
                              <RETURN>    UPDIR           
      Archive        Kit.X00 bccr      exe   616448      616  0.1

     
                             <RETURN>     UPDIR           
      Archive        Kit.X01 bccr      exe   616448     36986  6.0
      Commentary          No decode    obj    11458       6702 58.5
      Volumes        Present deflate   c      13428       3840 28.6

  Files arcstuf.obj, arhfind.bak, arfind.c, are files belonging to the 1)st
 type.
  The file bccr.exe belongs to the second type of files, because it continues
 in the next archive called Kit.X00. It may be easily noticed because of its
 peculiar sign, ''.

  Next file in archive Kit.X00, is not the rest of file bccr.exe, but another
 compressed chunk which lies belong to the last file types, 4)th.

  It tells us that there are more parts of its body spread in the previous
 volume, as we've seen above (Kit.X00 <- '') and in the next Volume
 ('' -> Kit.X01).

   A file can span as many archives as it's possible, so there is no rule,
 and there is no problem.
   The peculiar sign for the 4)Th file type is ''.

   The last Volume Archive has the last compressed part of bccr.exe file.
   Its type is 3, and has this mark  ''.
   It tells us that this is the last part from a specified file, for
 instance bccr.exe.

   We may not really know if the previous archive has the first part of the
 file, it may very well be the middle part. The only sure part is the file
 type 2 (''), which may really tell that this is the first part of the file.

   The "Test" or "Extract" commands differ a little. So, trying to "Test" or
 "Extract" a Volume Archive file, the following window will appear :


   Question Ļ
                    Work ONLY with the inserted Files                      
                   Use ALL the VOLUMES and ALL the Files                   
  ͼ

   Selecting the first menu item means that only the SELECTED files or
 directories will be extracted. Why is this necessary ? Because since the
 volume archives are not a single archive but different ones, extracting
 all the files, broken or not will have been very hard if there will
 probably be more than 100 volume archives.

   So, selecting the second item, extracting all the volume archive files
 from all the volumes, will be automatically done, even if there were only
 2-3 inserted files.

   After selecting the former or the latter item the encoder starts to search
  for the head of a file or directory, the file type 2).
   After that it goes through archives till all the inserted files are
  processed, or for the latter item, when all the files from all the archives are
  processed.

  Let's see :

  "Searching in Volume K.X01                                      "
  "Searching in Volume K.X00                                      "
  "Searching in Volume K.RAX                                      "
  "Found file at position   7838, in Volume K.RAX                 "
  "Testing  BCCR.EXE                              43344   65536  "
  "ReStarting at position  65537, from K.X00                      "
  "Testing  BCCR.EXE                              76068   196608 "
  "ReStarting at position 121521, from K.X01                      "
  "Testing  BCCR.EXE                                       CRC Ok!"

  So, "Searching in Volume K.X01" means the decoder tries to find the header
 of the file "BCCR.EXE". It is found of course in the Volume K.RAX. From here
 the decoder searches for all the parts of the file BCCR.EXE, till it finds
 the last part of it, in K.X01.

 *NOTE:
   When the requested Volume is not found, an error window appear to specify
  what volume could not be found. For instance :

   Error Ļ
    Could not find RAX Volume  
              K.X04            
  ͼ

   This Volume Archive may be missing, probably deleted, but if the rest of
  a file was there, the file will no longer have the "CRC Ok!".
   There is another error called:

   Error Ļ   That means that since the Volume Archives
    Volume Information Can     posses shared information about a broken
       Not Be MODIFIED         file, this may not be modified.
  ͼ

   So, updating a Volumed Archive (adding more files to an already existing
  archive), and above all, deleting files from such archives, is strictly
  forbidden.


  12) Commented Archives

   This feature was designed to personalize RAX archiver. A commented archive
  shows that the archive belongs to someone, or was created only for a
  certain purpose.

   The comment file may be every file the user wants, but the idea is that
  every operation that will be done will automatically print the commentary
  on the screen, so it should consists in printable chars, like a text,
  not an executable.

   Selecting "Commentary file" will toggle the "Present / No" state.
   If "Commentary file" was "Present", it will become "No" after the
  mouse click, or after selecting it using "ALT - C".

   If it was "No", will become "Present".

   Being "Present", means that the archive  which is about to be created
  will have to notice and compresses the file as a commentary file, not as
  a normal file.

   Enter Commentary File Ļ
                                                                     
   c:\bc31\bin\work\doc.txt_                                         
                                                                     
  ͼ

  The windows keeps track of the last inserted string as a history, so if the
 commentary file is misspelled, it may very easily be corrected, not written
 again.

  After selecting "F2 - Add files", the first sentence will be

 " Adding     Comment  File                                       41%"

  So, it does not matter what name the file has, since it is not kept, but
 registered as "COMMENT", inside the archive. Like every other file, it is
 compressed, too.

  Entering the archive, the user will very likely see that the commentary is
 noticed immediately and the "Archive Panel" shows like this :

  " Archive                    123.RAX"
  " Commentary                 Present"

  Every processing that concerns a commented archive will automatically print
 the commentary on the screen, as we discussed later. It is so, requested
 that the comment file to be limited to the size of one screen,
 so around 2000 bytes.

  If the commentary size is bigger, the contents of the commentary will be
 scrolled upwards so it won't be seen. After printing the whole commentary or
 after every 32 Kbytes chunk the screen is frozen and waits for a key stroke
 or a mouse click.

  The message "Press a Key"  will be written at the bottom of the Commentary
 Window (This is for the commentary to be .

13) Exception Lists

   Theoretically, every compression program tries to achieve the ideal
  compression ratio, which lies next to the file's entropy.
   Data compression algorithms are based upon reducing the file's redundancy.
   The higher the redundancy, the higher the compression.
   The redundancy of a certain file may be expressed in few words : the file
  consists in repeated strings of characters that seem to reappear after some
  other non-repeated strings of characters.

   Shrinking these repeated strings to the maximum capability of the
  algorithm, the archive will no longer have such repeated strings, so its
  compressibility will drop to zero.

   This is why already compressed files are harder and harder to compress!

   Unfortunately, some extra pieces of information that is inserted in an
  archive like the file's name, previous size, compressed size, home
  directory makes the compression programs to achieve around 5 percents
  in compressing other archives. If the file may not be compressed, it is
  stored, so the overall compression ratio drops immediately.

  Here is an example :

  " Adding    ACTEST20.ZIP                                              99%"
  " Adding    AIN22.ZIP                                                 99%"
  " Adding    AR002.ZIP                                                 97%"
  " Adding    ARCE40G.ZIP                                               99%"
  " Adding    BOOZ20.ZIP                                                93%"
  " Storing   CODEC31.ZIP                                              100%"
  " Storing   COM-PACK.ARC                                             100%"
  " Adding    COMP430D.ZIP                                  51%"
  " Adding    CRUSH18.ZIP                                               99%"
  " Adding    CYRIX-ID.ZIP                                              96%"
  ""
  " GLOBAL    %                                                         93%"

   So, the user may see that there are exceptions too, since the nature of
  an archive depends on the type of the file it is compressing, but the
  average compression ratio is around 5 - 10% gain over the previous total
  size.

   This is why the "Exception List" is designed to overcome this obvious
  millstone, and jump over the indicated archive extensions.

   So, selecting "Exception List" will toggle the "Present / No" state.
   If "Exception List" was "Yes", it will become "No" after the
  mouse click, or after selecting it using "ALT - E".

   If it was "No", will become "Yes".
   Being "Yes" than selecting means that every file that has an
  extension met inside the text the user will have to enter will be skipped.

   This is the official list of already compressed files that will no longer
  be compressed :

   Enter Extension File To Skip Ļ
                                                                     
   ARC, ARJ, RAX, RAR, LHA, LHZ, LZH, UC2, ZIP, ZOO,   _             
                                                                     
  ͼ

   The extensions should consists in 1-3 characters, plus a space in the
  beginning followed by a comma in the end.
   Just like " X," or " XX," or " XXX,".
   Of course that the user may insert some non-archive type extensions,
  since the fact that the extension belongs to an archive is not verified!
   The file is just skipped when the extension is spotted, that' all.


  14) Normal panel

   The Normal Panel is the panel that shows the information when the program
  is not inside an archive, and when it shows the available files from the
  current directory.

   The first group is designed in order to access the ALT Commands using the
  mouse. The user may click here to select whether the user wants or not to
  set this option as "Yes" or "No". Please refer to "ALT COMMANDS" within
  the user RAX Manual, too.

   Here is what the user may hit  and   the equivalent with a mouse click

                                         ALT - Commands  
  ALT - P (Select the password) >  Password                    No 
  ALT - M (Set compression level) >  Compression Method      Normal 
  ALT - L (Register the errors) >  Log errors to file          No 
  ALT - C (Choose a commentary) >  Comment  File               No 
  ALT - E (Fill exception list) >  Exception List              No 
  ALT - V (Select the volume size) >  Volume Size               None 

  The second group is about some system related infos, like :

                                         Status 
                                        Add to archives            Enabled
                                        Extract archive files      Enabled
  The free memory up to 640 K >  Free memory                   154K
  The free space on the current disk->  Free space on C:              215M
  The current directory on the          
      current disk >   C:\BC31\BIN\WORK\RAX


  15) Archive panel

    The Archive Panel is the panel that shows the information when the
  program is inside an archive, and when it shows the available files
  from the current directory.

  Here is each one explained :

 Archive           AFIS.RAX  The Archive Name
 Commentary              No  The Archive has no commentary
 Volumes                 No Ŀ  or commentary is present("Yes").
 Encryption              No Ŀ  Please check "COMMENTED ARCHIVE".
 Locked                  No         
 Files                  153 Ŀ
 Total length       4175642 Ŀ  The Archive is part of a multi-volume
 Packed length      1055802 Ŀ   archive like .X00, .X01, ...
 Global ratio           25% Ŀ   Please check "VOLUMED ARCHIVE".
 Dictionary             64K Ŀ
 Version to extract     1.0 Ŀ The Archive is encrypted means
 Compression Method Pressed Ŀ    that it was created with the
                                 option Password setted as "Yesd"
                                 Please check "PASSWORD PROT. ARCHIVE".
   
 Free memory        157K  The length of files BEFORE compr.
                            The length of files AFTER  compr.
 ĳ  The report Packed/Total length,
 AFIS.RAX : TST\CPY              equ. the average compression
 ͳ 
                    Ŀ  The Compression Dictionary Size
This tells if the current  The Authentification Version
 password is on or off.This  The Compression method may be "Pressed"
 is very important since if the       that means the file was compressed
 file is Encrypted, and the           with a level 1 - 8, or "Stored"
 Password is "No", the file           that means the file could not
 could not be "Tested" or "Extr."     be compressed so, it was just copied.
 with CRC - Ok.                       Please check "COMPRESSION LEVEL".
It must be set to "Yes" if the
 archive is Encrypted and must be
 "Tested" or  "Extracted".

 The system's free memory up to 640K.
 
  The Archive Curent Directory.


 16) ALT - COMMANDS

  Pressing ALT key, the following window appears

  ALT - Commands Ļ
   Set comment file     ALT-C   Pressing ALT-C, the user will
   Select disk          ALT-D  Ŀ  access the archive comment procedure.
   Exception list       ALT-E  Ŀ  Please refer to "COMMENTED ARCHIVES".
   Look for a file      ALT-F   Looks for a file within an archive
   Set log file         ALT-L  Ŀ
   Select method        ALT-M  Ŀ Pressing ALT-D, the user will
   Set password         ALT-P  Ŀ  access the Disk Change procedure.
   Save setup           ALT-S  Ŀ  Please referto "DISK CHANGE".
   Set volume           ALT-V   
 [*]ͼ 
                                  
                              ٳ Pressing ALT-E, the user will access
   Pressing ALT -V, the user will   the Exceptions List procedure. Please
 will access the Set Volume proce   refer to "EXCEPTION LIST".
 dure which is used to set a  lim  
 it to archive size. Please  refe   Pressing ALT-L, the user will access
 r to "VOLUMED ARCHIVES" from  yo    the Log errors procedure which will
 ur manual                           automatically enlist in a file called
                                     RAX_.LOG. Please refer to "LOG ERRORS
   Pressing ALT - P, the user  ٳ  to FILE".
 will access the Set Password       
 procedure which will be used        And finally, pressing ALT - M,
 in encrypting the userr archive.       the compression level procedure. This
 Please refer to "PASSWORD PROTECTED"   is used to modify the compr. ratio
 ARCHIVES"                              and / or the compression speed.

    This window was fully designed to show the extra commands that may be
  accessed by pressing the functional ALT key.
    All these functions may be accessed too, by pressing a mouse button in
  the Normal Panel. Please refer to "NORMAL PANAL", too.

  17) The enlisting window

   This window appears every time the user enters an archive which has more
   than 300 files. Just take a look:

   Please wait Ļ   So this window tells the user briefly, since
                            some times the user may not even spot the
     555 files enlisted     window, about the numbers of the files in the
                            currently opened archive.
  ͼ

   The total number of files within a certain archive, is showed in the so
  called "Archive Panel", so please check out "ARCHIVE PANEL". Since this is
  another one of the program tasks, it may be paused, too. so please
  take a look at "The Break Window", too.


  18) Changing the current disk

   This is more a system-related task, rather than a compression related
  facility, but is welcomed because different people work on different disks.

   So, the disk change procedure may be accessed by many other way :

  1) pressing ALT - D
  2) hitting F9 key, the RAX MENU, and then selecting "Select Disk ALT - D"
  3) clicking the mouse on the mouse - sensitive disks on the desktop bottom

  Here is an example on a 4-disk machine:

   Free memory .....
   Free on E:         - Here is the marks for the currently available
            disks on the current machine. Of course that
        ..                these may vary from a launch to another, and
  [ A B C D E ] <    depends on the machine environment ( new network
1Help 2Add                  drives may appear or so).


  These disks include the hard and the logical ones, so SUBST disks may
 appear too. Take a look what happened after the DOS Command
 "SUBST U: C:\COMPRESS",

   Free memory  .....
   Free on E:           After entering the program again, the new disk
             is immediately enlisted in the Disk List.
        ..             
  [ A B C D E U] <
  1Help 2Add

    Moving the mouse cursor over the disk letter the user will see them
  highlighting and that means that clicking the mouse on the selected
  drive will change the disk and read the files from that drive and its
  current directory.

   This is the straightforward procedure to change the disk.
   There is another way, which may be accessed by pressing ALT - D
  (please check "ALT - COMMANDS"), or clicking over the F9 menu at "Select
  disk ALT-D".

  This is done using the following window :

   Disks Ļ  Using the mouse or the keyboard the user may select the drive
      A:    the user desires to work with.
      B:     Since this is another menu, its mouse sensitive, too. The left
  Cۺ and right keys are also available.
      D:   
      E:     If the drive is not valid, like "A:" or "B:" with no diskette
  ͼ in the drive, an error window appears :

    This window is the HARDWARE Error window. It may appear every time a
  hardware error occurs. The text is printed in the middle. Here is the
  text for the above example concerning the missing of the diskette from
  the drive "B:", meaning that the "Drive is not ready".

   Error Ļ
                 B: Drive not ready.               
   Abort                       Retry   
                               
  ͼ

  Here are more hardware errors and their  meaning :

  "Write protect. "   - writing on that drive is forbidden.
     There may be for instance, only a "write protected" diskette.
  "Unknown unit."     - the selected drive(unit) does no longer exist. It
                          must have be disabled.
  "Drive or device not ready." - the same error described in the window above.
  "Bad request" - System failure: DOS is at fault
  "Disk seek error" - Application error: passed bad info to DOS, inconsistent
                          request,etc.
  "Data error (CRC)."  - the unit has a data error on drive recognition by
                          the host operating system.
  "Seek error." - one or more units clusters must be damaged, so reading
                         / searching may encounter errors.
  "Unknown media type." -  Not found: requested file/item may not be found.
  "Sector not found." - Bad format: file/item in invalid format (EXE file bad,
                           etc.)
  "Write fault." -  Media error: wrong disk, disk CRC error, etc.
  "Read fault." - Already exists: collision with existing file/item
  "General failure." - Unknown error class: classification doesn't exist


  19) How to Log ERRORS in the file

    When this feature is selected, and it is "Yes", any major error is
  written down in a special file called the error file "RAX_.Log".
    Here is how the error window register its error message in the file,
  and after that, let's suppose that more error messages will be written.

   Error Ļ
    Could not open file  
             2           Ŀ
  ͼ               
                                          
"RAX Error Report      27-09-1997                                      "
"                                                                        "
"03:28:36 : Could not open file 2  <                                 "
"03:29:09 : File CPY\ARCSTUF.C    CRC failed (CRC BAD), incorrect password?"
"03:29:09 : File CPY\ARCSTUF.H    CRC failed (CRC BAD), incorrect password?"
"03:29:09 : File CPY\ARHFIND.C    CRC failed (CRC BAD), incorrect password?"
"03:29:09 : File CPY\ARHFIND.H    CRC failed (CRC BAD), incorrect password?"
"03:29:09 : File CPY\CERROR.C     CRC failed (CRC BAD), incorrect password?"

 This is the file header which is written every time the feature "Log to file"
 is selected to be on. It consist in the string " RAX Error Report " and the
 date when the opening took place.

  After that all the errors are written down, but on the time when the error
 occurs is kept, because the date was already written, and do not differ. The
 time may be different from an error to another, so it is written along with
 the error.
  So, briefly, here is how the error file skeleton looks like:

  " RAX Error Report "  - DATE of opening

  TIME when error occurred : [ File ..... ] Error string ......
  TIME when error occurred : [ File ..... ] Error string ......
  TIME when error occurred : [ File ..... ] Error string ......

   The file is automatically closed if this feature is selected to be off
 and at the end of the running.
   So, multiple "Yes" / "No" selections will write more error headers
 in the file.

   20) Help Window

   This window is designed to help the user, in order not to use the manual
  every time he works. It is made up of 3 separate windows.

   The first window is the "HELP WINDOW", and it contains 3 buttons, "OK",
  "MORE" and "ABOUT". The other two buttons control the last two windows.
   The second is called "MORE HELP WINDOW", and the last is the "ABOUT WINDOW".
   Please refer to "ABOUT WINDOW" for more information about this special
  window, and it's content.

   The "HELP WINDOWS" shows all the programs capabilities in the integrated
  interface, and consists in 3 categories.

  The first category belongs to the function key operations from "RAX MENU",
 so those which may be accessed pressing one of the functional keys F1 -- F10.
                                                                    
     F1 Help                                   ٳ
     F2 Add Files To Archive (UpDate Archive)  ٳ
     F3 Test Files From Archive                ٳ
     F4 Extract Files From Archive To ...      ٳ
     F7 Set Volume Size( 50K, 100K, 200K, ...) ٳ
     F8 Delete Files From Archive              ٳ
     F9 Menu                                   ٳ
     F10  Quit                                 

  The second category is showed to check all extra keys that may

    Space,INS  -  Select file       Ŀ
    '+', '-'   -  Select group      Ĵ
    '*'        -  Invert selection  Ĵ
    Enter      -  Enter to archive  ſ
    PgUp, PgDn -  Scroll One Page   Ŀ 
    Home, End  -  Go Up, Dn         ſ
                                                                        
                                                                        
  be used to insert / uninsert files using "Space" key,                 
  "Insert" or "*" key  enter a directory pressing "Enter",     ٳ
  or with a double click scroll down / up files using      ٳ
  Page Up / Page Down keys                            

  The two buttons are showed at the bottom of the "HELP WINDOW".

    Continue                       About
                             
  

  Pressing "OK" ends the Help mode.

  21) The About Window

  The about window is designed in order to speak a little about the
  program itself,

   About RAX Ļ
                                               about the writter, about the
    RAX - Romanian Archiver eXpert Ver 1.02    company which created this
    Produs de GeCAD - The Software Company     product.
                                             
                                             
    tel/fax: 0040.1.3248409, 0040.1.6476307    There are too, information
    e-mail:  office@gecad.ro                   about the user name, serial
    http://www.gecad.ro                        number, company, etc.
                                             
     Personalization Ļ     The phone / fax numbers are
        Serial Number:                       given to easy further contacts
        User:                                between the user and the
        Company:                             company.
    ͼ      The "Yes" button is mouse
                                               sensitive and can be too,
                Ok               selected by pressing the
                                Enter key, or Esc.
  [*]ͼ

 22) The Selection window

    This window is used for selective selection of files. The mouse may be
   used to select all the files, in the easy manner, a left button click
   below the files list, or to try and select different kinds of files.

    This window helps selecting this files automatically, by using a mask,
   or patter.
    This is very easy, and can be done instantly by writing the mask within
   the input line, and pressing the "Proceed" button.

    The window is designed to have its own history, so a string such as
   for instance "*.cp?" is kept in the memory and another request on
   selecting or even unselecting files, that string is printed as default.

    Select Items Ļ   The window has two mouse sensitive
                                        buttons but only choosing "Proceed"
    d*.bm?                              the history will get updated.
                                         Pressing "Cancel" is seen as
    Proceed       Cancel   a mistake and the history is not
                changed.
   ͼ
   This option can be selected by pressing the gray '+' key, on the numerical keypad.

   Here is an example :
    For the above "d*.bm?",  only the following files get insertedĿ
                                                                     
    circles   bmp      190        171 90.5                        
    dead      bmp     2710        891 32.9 <Ĵ
    dead2     bmp     2710        403 14.9 <Ĵ
    dune_war  bmp   233546       9808  4.2 <
    earth     bmp   768054      19969  2.6

  23) The Unselection Window

    The same as above, but the inserted string is used to uninsert files.

  24) Command line arguments

     Here are the most common commands that can be easily written when
   in the command line :

   "<Commands>"

   "a  Add files to archive           u  Update files in archive"
   "f  Freshen files in archive       m  Move to archive"
   "x  Extract files with full path   e  Extract archive files"
   "d  Delete archive files           v  Verbosely list contents of archive"
   "l  List contents of archive       en Enters the specified archive"
   "t  Test archive files             k  Lock archive"
   "?  [ -?, -H, -h, /?, /H, /h]  Shows this help"

    These command line functions are quite similar to their environmental
  neighbors, but much faster, in accessing, not processing since both
  have the same procedures.

    NOTE : All  the commands must be given without "-". These sign marks
  the beginning of a switch, which will be discussed later.

    So, when talking about a "y" switch please think of "-y" [to write].

    The arguments are given immediately after the executable itself,
  and MUST be in a strictly order. Please NOTE that this, the strictness of
                                   ----------------------------------------
  arguments, is one  of the major disadvantages of archivers like ARJ, ARC...
  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
  which do not posses an integrated interface like RAX Archiver does.
  ----------------------------------------------------------

 a) The screen listed above is provided by a command line argument, too,
   the last one. The command may be as follows : "RAX -?[hH]" or "RAX ?[hH]",
   so any combination of those three "?","h","H" is allowed.

    This command is described as "Show this help", which is quite obvious.

 b) The Add Command,  "Add files to archive"

     EXE    COMMAND    SWITCHES    ARCHIVE_NAME       FILES
     
     RAX        A                    Afi.RAX         c:\temp"
     RAX        A       -m7          d:\a\a          *.h
     RAX        A       -v1          C:\temp\o       D:\Jokes\*.?h
     RAX        A       -m0 -v7      C:\temp\H\1     D:\Jokes\*.?h

  These command is very similar to the "Add" command from the Status Bar.
                    
  [ A B C D ]   The difference is that the command line command
  1Help  2Add  <  needs some arguments.

    The arguments must be as you've just seen, the ARCHIVE_NAME, OPTIONS,
  and FILES. Note that the OPTIONS are not compulsory to be given.

    ARCHIVE_NAME must be the name of an already existing archive, or the name
  of an archive to be created. The user must be act carefully, since if the
  path must be valid. For instance, if the path "D:\TEMP\1111\" is not valid,
  than the archive "D:\TEMP\1111\A.RAX" will not be created.

   SWITCHES for the "Add" command, from the command line environment are


  "-m" : This is used to modify the compression method.
          The generic from is "-m<0..7>", where   0 is the "Fastest" method,
                                                  1 is the "Faster " method,
          These methods may be modified by        2 is the "Fast   " method,
          pressing "ALT - M", and are used        3 is the "Normal " method,
          to tune the compression ratio, and      4 is the "Good   " method,
          speed up the compression, please        5 is the "Better " method,
          note, only the compression, and         6 is the "Tight  " method,
          decrease the compactness or the         7 is the "Max    " method,
          other way around.

          Please refer to "COMPRESSION METHOD", for more info about this
          option,

   "-v": This is used to create a volume archive.
           Note that you can not update such a Volumed Archive, since
           the "Volume information could not be modified". The user will
           receive such a warning message like the very one above, or this
           one "Can not UPDATE VOLUMED archives or NORMAL archives with
           new volume". This means that a normal archive, with no volume
           information, can not be updated with a fragmented data, since
           creating Volumed Archives, means creating more archive, not
           [updating]  only one.

         Anyway, the generic form is "-v<1..8> where
                                                      1 is the   50 K Volume
                                                      2 is the  100 K Volume
           All these may be very well modified using  3 is the  200 K Volume
           pressing "ALT - V", and are used to limit  4 is the  360 K Volume
           the size of the archive in order to occupy 5 is the  720 K Volume
           a diskette, or another critical low space  6 is the 1.2  M Volume
           drive.                                     7 is the 1.44 M Volume
                                                      8 is the 2.88 M Volume


    FILES is the last argument that may be written down on the command line,
   and represents the files that will be added in the new / updated archive.
    It may be made up of special characters like "?",  "*" combined with
   normal ones. It is the everyday DOS representation of file names.


    "a  Add files to archive           u  Update files in archive"
    "f  Freshen files in archive       m  Move to archive"

   b) The Move Command, "Move To Archive"
   c) The Freshen Command, "Freshen files in archive"
   d) The Update Command, "Update files in archive"

    These are "Add" neighbor commands. Note that the "M" command is quite the
  same as using the "[X] Move files" checkbox from the " Add files " window,
  when pressing F2, in the integrated environment.

 e) The Test Command,  "Test archive files"

    EXE    COMMAND   SWITCHES  ARCHIVE_NAME     FILES
    
    RAX        t                  Afi.RAX       c:\temp"
    RAX        t       NONE       d:\a\a        *.h
    RAX        t                  C:\temp\i     D:\Jokes\*.?h

    These command is very similar to the "Test" command from the Status Bar.
                          
   [ A B C D ]       The difference is that the command line command
   1Help  2Add  3Test <  needs some arguments.

    The arguments must be as you've just seen, the ARCHIVE_NAME, OPTIONS,
  and FILES. Note that the OPTIONS are not compulsory to be given.
    Options for the "Test" command, from the command line environment are
    Note that this testing command performs only the CRC - checking routines,
  in the memory and does not write the file.

  FILES are exactly as above.

 f) The Extracting Command. "Extract archive files"

   This command is very similar to the "Test archive files", the only
  difference is that the procedure writes the files and performs the
  CRC - checking routine, too.

  There are more switches than any other command, so here they are :

  EXE    COMMAND   SWITCHES   ARCHIVE_NAME     FILES
  
  RAX        e                   Afi.RAX       c:\temp
  RAX        e        -n         d:\a\a        *.h
  RAX        e        -y         C:\temp\j     D:\Jokes\*.?h
  RAX        e        -o-        C:\s\af\f     D:\Jokes\*.?h
  RAX        e        -o+        C:\1\1\s      D:\Jokes\*.?h

    Please refer to the Chapter "EXTRACTING AN ARCHIVE FILE", for this
   following error window.

    These switches are designed for faster decompression to jump over
   the above window buttons.

      Switch Ŀ
                                           
      "-y" "-o+"         "n" "-o-"          
            Ŀ                          
        Ŀ          Ŀ            
       Exist Ļ
              D:\BUGS.GFC            Aleady Exist, OVERWRITE ? 
                                                                    
       Yes       No   All    Cancel   
                            
      ͼ

 "-y" means to press the "Yes" button every time a window appears. "Assume
       YES to all queries".
 "-n" means to press the "No" button every time a window appears. "Assume NO
       to all queries".

 "-o-" and "-o+" are the buttons designed especially for this "EXIST" window.
 "-o[+-]" are the overwrite switches, Since a file is about to be overwritten,
       it must exist so none of these switches were given, or "-y", or "-n",
       the above window will appear.
       "-o-" means never overwrite files, exactly like answering with "NO"
       buttons at the "Overwrite" question.

       "-o+" means always overwrite files, exactly like answering with "YES"
       or "ALL" buttons at the "Overwrite" question. Answering "YES" in
       integrated environment use means that only that very file will not
       be overwritten.
       But in the command line environment, the "YES" button is exactly like
       the "ALL" files, so "-o+" applies to "YES" and "ALL" button, as well,

 g) The Extract with Path Command, " Extract files with full path "

    This is "Extract archive files" neighbor command. Note that the "X"
  command is quite the same as using the "[X] Extract with pathname" checkbox
  from the " Extract files " window,  when pressing F4, in the integrated
  environment.

 h) Delete Archive files,   " Delete archive files"

    EXE    COMMAND   SWITCHES   ARCHIVE_NAME     FILES
    
    RAX        d                   Afi.RAX       c:\temp
    RAX        d                   d:\a\a        *.h
    RAX        d       NONE        C:\temp\j     D:\Jokes\*.?h
    RAX        d                   C:\s\af\f     D:\Jokes\*.?h
    RAX        d                   C:\1\1\s      D:\Jokes\*.?h

    This argument was too, designed for fast access and delete of a crowded
  directory, like "temp\a\b\c\d\f..\y.\*.X". Note that is faster to write
  "RAX d ARCHIVE_NAME" directory [ temp\.. ^ \*.X ] rather than entering
  the archive, searching for that long named directory ...\y\, selecting
  the "*.X" files, and then deleting them by pressing F8 or selecting the
  command from the RAX MENU.

    This is done by fly, though is very fast in terms of accessing,
  as we said, not processing, since when starting, from the integrated
  interface, or the command line interface, the routine is processed with
  the same speed.

  i) List archive files,    "l  List contents of archive
  j) Verbose list of files  "v  Verbosely list contents of archive"

    These command have no similar ones in the integrated mode. They are
   rather used for listing he content of an archive in a file using the
   DOS switch " >> file ".  The "l" command is more verbose than the "v"
   command, but the "v" command was conceived to list the full name of
   an archive file, and its most important features like Original Size,
   Compressed Size, Compression Ratio and files CRC.

 k) Lock archive

 Note : Available only in the registered version!

 This command is similar to the one from the integrated interface, where can
 be selected by pressing the F5 key. Unlocking cannot be performed, from
 securities measures.

 This is a very important feature of RAX archiver, when the user wishes to
 insure itself that the current archive will no longer by accidentally
 modified by erasing files or adding other files to archive which may
 overwrite some of them inside the archive, and so on.

 But extraction and testing can be performed, as well as before.
 So, if some files inside the archive are needed to be set in another archive
 along with other files, they can be extracted and compressed again in that
 archive, too.

 The following window appears when locking is selected.

  Locking Archive Ļ  It shows the archive that is
               AFIS.RAX                 being currently locked, and the
           Archive is Locked            current state of the archive LOCKED /
 ͼ  UNLOCKED.

 And here is the error window that will appear every time the locked archive,
is about to be changed, updated or deleted.

                                               Error Ļ
  Pressing the "Continue" button, the whole      Archive is locked   
 operation will be stopped and no action will  It cannot be MODIFIED 
 done against your archive.                                          
                                                    Continue      
                                                           
                                              ͼ
 25) Searching a file within an archive

  Note : Available only in the registered version !

   This option, allows the user to search for a file within a RAX archive. It
  allows even the use within a multi-volume archive!
   It is a very useful feature, for instance, the search for a file within a
  multi volume archive, with more than 40 ".X.." volumes.
   The user will only have to insert the most appropriate name required for
  searching the file, by pressing ALT-F, or selecting from the menu.
   For instance, looking for RAX_COPY.123 you can insert RAX_C, or RAX_COP,
  the searching engine stopping at the first matched file.

   Look For A File Ļ
                                         
        1.exe_                           
                                         
   Ok           Cancel 
                 
  [*]ͼ

   After inserting a name for the targeted file, a result window will be
   displayed.

 1) The archive or the multi-volume where the file has just been found,
     for instance RAX.X19  Ŀ
 2) The full path for the file, in archive. RAX\RAX_C\RAX_COPY.123,        
     in order to be easily found! Ŀ
 3) Data about the target file                                            
                                                                         
       Original Compressed  Date     Time    CRC         
                                                                     
                                                     
  Looking for the file Ļ   
  JOC.EXE                51228    22295 00-0-80 00-0-00 0BE75AC    
  JOC22U.CPP             21860     5469 00-00-80 00-00-00 7D102A52    
  MOUS1.CPP               4770     1414 00-00-80 00-00-00 675E7C5A    
  MOU2E.H         >   488>  263 00-00-80 00-00-00 29A4A842    
  JOC1DSK                  3168       951 00-00-80 00-00-00 0467B695    
  JOC.SYM                336986    101992 00-00-80 00-00-00 6340A860    
  JOCMEU.OBJ              16188      9211 00-00-80 00-00-00 1B9C3326    
  GG.CPP                   9480      2955 00-00-80 00-00-00 27196165    
  UTILE.OBJ                7831      4154 00-00-80 00-00-00 ADE6C38C    
  MOUS1.OBJ                4108      2679 00-00-80 00-00-00 82EF53AC    
  GU1.CPP                  3457      1266 00-00-80 00-00-00 32925E9A    
  DON2.CPP                 4339      1604 00-00-80 00-00-00 2A534151    
  G2.OBJ                   9233      5539 00-00-80 00-00-00 0CE2E8B6    
  RAX_.IN1                   36        36 00-00-80 00-00-00 085EE07B    
  RAX_COPY.123             61289    59584 17-12-97 04-00-56 106DF539    
                        
  Found in RAX.X19 ĺ   
 RAX_COPY >>> MY_M1222\VERSIUNE\ERRRRRRR\RRRRRRRE\RERE\EEEEEEE\RA...
 ͼ

                        26)  Auto RaX - SFX manual.

                       SELF EXTRACTING  -  AUTO RAX MANUAL

  26.1) Description

  This feature of RAX archiving/compressing package is represented by a
 file called AutoRAX.exe .
  AutoRAX is an extremely well - thought feature of RAX, designed to hasten
 the extraction/testing & listing of a RAX archive
  This program will modify the first volume from a multi-volume archive, or
 the archive itself, if no multi-volume feature was used!

  26.2) Options

  The parameter for this program must be a RAX archive, and here is a sample
 of a command line: "AutoRAX.exe archive name", for instance "AutoRAX 123.rax".

  Please note this will only be launched in the command line.

  This will create an EXE file, such as 123.exe, which is actually an AutoRAX
 archive, a self-extracting RAX archive - SFX.

  About its parameters will discuss later.
  These are the messages printed out during the AutoRAX creation:

  26.3) Messages

  " Self Extracting - Auto RAX Converter, from RAX package.
    Produced by GeCAD Srl, 1997. Written by Sabin, Belu.
      Checking archive 123.rax :  Ok!.                        "

   The program verifies the integrity of RAX archive's header to see if it's
  valid or not. This is 100% beneficial because we will soon deal with an EXE
  files, and ... any attempt to run it without the RAX header checked,
  will lead us to unpredicted results.

  "  Initializing SFX data ... "
   The decompression engine is unpacked from an internal buffer and is
  prepared to be stuck in the head of the new EXE file which will be created.

  "  Creating AutoRAX : 123.EXE"
   The new EXE file with RAX archive name is created and the decoding
  procedure is stuck now as archive header.

   "  Converting Archive 123.RAX ... 100%"
   The content of the RAX archive is copied into the new file. Note that this
 is the only time-eating procedure.

  "AutoRAX created.
   AutoRAX is property of GeCAD srl - The Software Company."

   The termination message and the final message which announces the
  converting of the RAX archive in EXE.

   NOTE:

     The RAX archive is not overwritten. *.RAX is only converted into another
  file *.EXE, for instance 123.RAX --> 123.EXE.

   VERY IMPORTANT NOTE :
    The multi-volume decompression is not possible without the rest of *.X00,
  *.X01, .... .
    ONLY the .RAX archive is replaceable with the new EXE.

                        26.5) SFX parameters

                       SFX (AutoRAX) PARAMETERS

   The new EXE file created, for instance 123.EXE form 123.RAX, can deal with
  some of so-called built-in parameters.
   Executing the file created without any parameter, the immediate extraction
  of the archive begins. the extraction is done with FULL PATH,
  please note these.

  Take a look on an SFX output when carried out:

 "AutoRAX, from RAX package.
  Produced by GeCAD srl, The Software Company, 1997. Written by Sabin Belu.

   Extracting SFX C:\BC31\BIN\WORK\RAX\Y\A.EXE
   Extracting COMPRESS.TXT                                 Ok!
   Extracting DIFF_LZS.TXT                                 Ok!
   Extracting DOC.TXT                                      ......"

   AutoRAX warns when is about to overwrite a file. This is beneficial for
  not overwriting a file with an older version of it.

  "AutoRAX, from RAX package.
  Produced by GeCAD srl, The Software Company, 1997. Written by Sabin, Belu.
  Extracting SFX C:\BC31\BIN\WORK\RAX\Y\A.EXE
  Overwrite C:\BC31\BIN\WORK\RAX\Y\compress.txt ?Yes/No/All/Cancel y
   Extracting COMPRESS.TXT                                          Ok!"

  Pressing "y" or "Y", the AutoRAX will overwrite the file.
  Pressing "n" or "N", the AutoRAX will not overwrite the file.
  Pressing "a" or "A", the AutoRAX will overwrite ALL the FILES.
  Pressing "c" or "C", the AutoRAX will stop.

  Other parameters:

 't', 'T' -> the sfx will only test the files included within itself,
  without extracting itself.

 'l', 'L' -> the sfx will only list the files included within itself,
  without extracting itself.

  Here is an AutoRAX file listing.
  What is printed :

   FILE name   Ŀ
   PREVIOUS size Ŀ
   PACKED size      Ŀ
   COMPRESSION ratio Ŀ
   CRC-32(checksum)  Ŀ                                               
                                                       
                      
   File Name          Size    Packed  Ratio     CRC-32

   compress.txt               15149      6072  40.0%    B929726A
   diff_lzs.txt               27444     10417  37.9%    A4F52BBA
   doc.txt                    66134     24460  36.9%    AE4CA5F6
   docu.txt                   65172     24451  37.5%    0B68ECF0
   RAX1.exe                  409600    196363  47.9%    1050E9EA
   lowp_ac.doc                 6465      2831  43.7%    0087A691
   makesfx.exe                39094     31012  79.3%    3E521AAA
   p1.txt                      7375      2782  37.7%    01DF2A9E

  SFX : A.EXE, 8 fisier(e)   636433    298388    46%

                                               
                                                
   ARCHIVE NAME                                  
   FILE number in archive                        
   TOTAL uncompressed size                
   TOTAL compressed size         
   TOTAL compression ratio 


                         --- THE END ---

  ARC - Archive utility, Version 6.02, created in January of 1989
  Copyright 1985-89 by System Enhancement Associates, Inc.;

  ARJ 2.50 SHAREWARE  Copyright (c) 1990-95 ARJ Software.  Oct 31 1995.

  LHA version 2.55b   Copyright (c) Haruyasu Yoshizaki, 1988-92,  11/24/92

  PKZIP (R)   FAST!   Create/Update Utility   Version 2.04g   02-01-93
  Copr. 1989-1993 PKWARE Inc.  All Rights Reserved.  Registered Version
  PKZIP Reg. U.S. Pat. and Tm. Off.   Patent No. 5,051,745

  RAR 2.00 beta       Copyright (c) 1993-96 Eugene Roshal  27 March 1996

  UltraCompressor II (tm) revision 3 PRO
  (c) 1991-1995, Ad Infinitum Programs, all rights reserved

  Zoo - Copyright (c) Rahul Dhesi


