GNU Sharutils is a set of utilities to handle
shell archives. The GNU shar utility produces a single
file
File or filing may refer to:
Mechanical tools and processes
* File (tool), a tool used to ''remove'' fine amounts of material from a workpiece
**Filing (metalworking), a material removal process in manufacturing
** Nail file, a tool used to gent ...
out of many files and prepares them for transmission by
electronic mail
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronics, electronic (digital media, digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, ...
services, for example by converting
binary file
A binary file is a computer file that is not a text file. The term "binary file" is often used as a term meaning "non-text file". Many binary file formats contain parts that can be interpreted as text; for example, some computer document fil ...
s into plain
ASCII
ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because of ...
text.
A shell archive is a collection of files that can be unpacked by the
Bourne shell
The Bourne shell (sh) is a Shell (computing), shell Command-line interface#Command-line interpreter, command-line interpreter for computer operating systems.
The Bourne shell was the default Unix shell, shell for Version 7 Unix. Unix-like syste ...
. A wide range of features provide extensive flexibility in manufacturing shar archives and in specifying shar smartness. For example, shar may
compress
compress is a Unix shell compression program based on the LZW compression algorithm. Compared to more modern compression utilities such as gzip and bzip2, compress performs faster and with less memory usage, at the cost of a significantly l ...
files,
uuencode binary files, split long files and construct multi-part mailings, ensure correct unsharing order, and provide
md5sum
is a computer program
A computer program is a sequence or set of instructions in a programming language for a computer to execute. Computer programs are one component of software, which also includes documentation and other intangible compon ...
or byte count verification.
GNU unshar scans a set of mail messages looking for the start of shell archives. It will automatically strip off the mail headers and other introductory text. The archive bodies are then unpacked by a copy of the shell. unshar may also process files containing concatenated shell archives.
See also
*
shar
In the Unix operating system, shar (an abbreviation of ''shell archive'') is an archive format created with the Unix shar utility. A shar file is a type of self-extracting archive, because it is a valid shell script, and executing it will recr ...
*
tar file format
In computing, tar is a computer software utility for collecting many files into one archive file, often referred to as a tarball, for distribution or backup purposes. The name is derived from "tape archive", as it was originally developed to ...
*
ar (Unix)
The archiver, also known simply as ar, is a Unix utility that maintains groups of files as a single archive file. Today, ar is generally used only to create and update static library files that the link editor or linker uses and for generating . ...
*
archive formats
In computing, an archive file is a computer file that is composed of one or more files along with metadata. Archive files are used to collect multiple data files together into a single file for easier portability and storage, or simply to compress ...
External links
GNU Sharutils official websiteGNU Sharutils manual
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gnu Sharutils
Sharutils