Chris Underwoods Useful dearchive tool.

This program is a short and fairly simple Amos prog that looks through one
directory, and de-archives all the programs in it into a separate archive.
Each new archive gets it's own drawer for all it's files, so if the archive
doesn't contain a directory itself, one will be made for it.
Here, have a look at an example (how I use this program):

Directory structure (before program is run):

  hd1: -+
        |
        +- tmp/ -+
                 |
                 +- lha/
                 |
                 +- lhaArced/ WormsLevels.lha
                              AMDFiles.lha
                              GifDatatype.lha

Directory structure (after program is run):

  hd1: -+
        |
        +- tmp/ -+
                 |
                 +- lha/ -+
                 |        |
                 |        +- WormLevels/ Mines.wrm
                 |        |              CMU.wrm
                 |        |              readme.txt
                 |        |
                 |        +- AMDFiles/ AMDMine1
                 |        |            AMDMine2
                 |        |            readme.mines
                 |        |
                 |        +- GifDatatype/ -+
                 |                         |
                 |                         +- GifDT/ GifClass
                 |                                   Classes
                 |                                   GifDT.Readme
                 |
                 +- lhaArced/ WormsLevels.lha
                              AMDFiles.lha
                              GifDatatype.lha

So the archives have all been decrunched into the lha/ directory. Each one has
it's own drawer created for it.

How to use the program.

The first thing to do is to install it. It doesn't take much once you get the
idea of what it does. Just drag the program into any directory at all, and pop
it's prefs setting program nearby too. If ran, the program will default to my
directory structure (shown above) but you may want to do this differently. The
next thing to do is to decide where everything should go. Make a directory for
the archives, and in the same directory, make a de-archived drawer. Right, now
run the prefs program and tell it a few details:

Dearchive command:
This is the command that will be used to de-archive the archives. The
appropriate filenames will be tagged onto the end. Valid commands might be:
lha x
c:lha >nil: e
hd0:c:unzip >nil
And so on. You can use any de-archiver that uses 
'command options archive de_archive_drawer' syntax. Lha is perfect for this.
The default here is likely to be adaquate for your needs.

Archive root:
This is the directory where the lha and lhaArced drawers reside. You should not
tag a '/' onto the end of the path.

Archive drawer name:
This is where the archive files reside before de-crunching. Just the drawer
name is needed. Again, do not place '/' on the end.

Unarchived drawer name:
This is the drawer where everything gets de-archived into. Again, do not add a
slash (/) to the end of it.

Timeout:
This is the time in seconds that the program will wait before quitting, when
all the workk has been done. During this time, you can press a mouse button or
any key to quit.

The save buttons are pretty logical. The prefs file gets saved into s: under
the name CMU_LhaDeArc.Prefs. Do not edit this file manually because it is
likely not to be read into Amos once you've saved it. What can I say - Amos is
picky about some things.

Right - that's the installation complete. Want a quick overview? Well, here's
one anyway:

1. Copy CMU_DeArcer and CMU_DeArcerPrefSet into a directory.
2. Make two directories for archives.
3. Run prefs program.
4. Set and save prefs.
5. Put some archives in the archives drawer.
6. Double click the de-archiving program.
7. Realise how much time you could save if you put your day's aminet downloads
   through this prog ;-)
8. Mail me at csuwz@csv.warwick.ac.uk to say it's all worked, or it's all
   broken! I will try to help if I can,

If the program vanishes anytime, it is because of an error. Probably in the
prefs file. Check that you have got all drawers in the right place etc. Don't
let it get it's hands on anything with a space in its archived filename and
don't give it any non-lha files. All files should be called something.lha as
well.

It sounds like a lot of work, but you'll realise how useful this prog is! If
you want the source, mail me asking for it. There isn't too much in the way
of error notification, but this prog should never do anything damaging to any
files. Still, if it does - I'm not responsible (short disclaimer).

This stuff is freely distributable. Do whatever you like to it as long as you
don't pass it off as your work.

CMU