Short: A compressing disk device v37.8; uses XPK Uploader: rhialto@mbfys.kun.nl (Olaf Seibert) Type: util/pack RCSId: $Id: README,v 1.5 1995/04/08 20:23:48 Rhialto Exp $ Overview ******** `xpkdisk.device' is an exec-style device that looks like trackdisk.device and similar disks. The difference is that it compresses its data and stores it in multiple files in an existing filesystem. * Version 37.8 works around a horrible bug that is really caused by XPK when track files are not compressible. Look in the source file "devio.c" for details, near the symbol XPKBUG. The bug was pointed out to me by Ulrik Jensen . * Fixes a bug in xdClear which assumed that all partitions started at track 0. The bug was pointed out to me by Michael Barsoom . * You can now change the XPKD: assign on the fly, if you're careful. * xdClear now works with the fake scsi.device, which does not seem to know about ETD_* commands. * Now keeps the old track file while writing a new one. The old track file is only deleted after successfully writing the new one. You have more control about what to do in such situations. * Now includes a utility to reclaim space from deleted files. * Now uses a hierarchical track naming scheme for faster access! * Now behaves better in cace of threatening lack of disk space. * Now handles read-only media. It uses the XPK (eXternal PacKer) standard to do the actual compression. This has many advantages: * You can choose which compression is most effective for your purpose. For one disk, you might want a very tight compression that is slow, for another you may prefer a faster but less efficient compression. * As soon as another XPK library is released, you can use it for your compressed disk(s). * Because each track is a standard XPK-compressed file, you can use the normal XPK utilities to uncompress your data, should you wish to do so. * You can change the compression type of a disk on-the-fly. All already compressed data remains perfectly usable, but upon re-compression your new choice will be used. * You can even manually decompress and recompress your disk (when xpkdisk is not accessing it, of course) with another compression method. ============================= Archive contents ============================= Original Packed Ratio Date Time Name -------- ------- ----- --------- -------- ------------- 17982 6993 61.1% 24-May-93 23:34:00 COPYING 4344 1843 57.5% 12-Apr-95 01:15:16 device1.a 12773 4296 66.3% 08-Apr-95 21:22:16 device2.c 27559 7970 71.0% 08-Apr-95 21:22:10 devio.c 340 172 49.4% 29-Dec-93 17:49:40 Files 4503 1459 67.5% 02-Apr-95 16:01:38 Install-XpkDisk 810 421 48.0% 08-Nov-93 12:59:48 Install-XpkDisk.info 5531 2239 59.5% 08-Apr-95 21:22:18 magic.c 2264 977 56.8% 08-Apr-95 21:22:30 Makefile 1938 867 55.2% 08-Apr-95 21:24:36 mkci.c 471 299 36.5% 08-Apr-95 21:24:16 Mountfile 2084 896 57.0% 08-Apr-95 21:24:28 name.c 13378 4533 66.1% 08-Apr-95 21:24:22 prefsmain.c 7732 2483 67.8% 29-Dec-93 17:19:18 prefswindow.c 5842 1213 79.2% 16-Oct-93 06:11:02 prefswindow.gui 985 453 54.0% 16-Oct-93 06:11:04 prefswindow.gui.info 2424 656 72.9% 29-Dec-93 17:20:06 prefswindow.h 2385 1204 49.5% 08-Apr-95 21:24:04 README 4113 1720 58.1% 08-Apr-95 21:24:42 ripcord.c 11884 7631 35.7% 08-Apr-95 21:26:20 xdClear 14284 4634 67.5% 08-Apr-95 21:24:24 xdclear.c 7440 5044 32.2% 08-Apr-95 21:26:14 xdName 2210 945 57.2% 08-Apr-95 21:24:30 xdname.c 14300 8775 38.6% 08-Apr-95 21:26:10 xdPrefs 522 319 38.8% 16-Aug-93 17:55:34 xdPrefs.info 12160 7335 39.6% 12-Apr-95 01:15:34 xpkdisk.device 35297 12661 64.1% 08-Apr-95 21:26:26 xpkdisk.guide : Modified 468 221 52.7% 01-Apr-95 16:39:18 XpkDisk.guide.info 4895 1918 60.8% 08-Apr-95 21:24:40 xpkdisk.h 30527 11933 60.9% 08-Apr-95 21:24:54 xpkdisk.texi -------- ------- ----- --------- -------- 251445 102110 59.3% 12-Apr-95 10:30:56 30 files