Version 4.2 of the shar utilities is available on all RCS platforms, providing a common set of the following utilities:
shar makes so-called shell archives out of many files, preparing them for transmission by electronic mail services. (A "shell archive" consists of a collection of files that can be unpacked by '/bin/sh'.) A wide range of features provides extensive flexibility in manufacturing shars and in specifying shar "smartness". For example, shar may compress files, uuencode binary files, split long files and construct multi-part mailings, ensure correct unsharing order, and provide simplistic checksums.
unshar helps unpacking shell archives after reception, and 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, and a copy of the shell will then unpack the archive bodies. unshar may also process files containing concatenated shell archives.
uuencode prepares a file for transmission over an electronic channel which ignores or otherwise mangles the eighth bit (high order bit) of bytes. uudecode does the converse transformation.
To access the shar utilities, enter the following command from a UNIX prompt:
setup shar-new
For information on how to run a particular utility, enter any of the following commands from a UNIX prompt. (Please note the double dashes.)
shar --help unshar --help uudecode --help uuencode --help remsync --help mail-files --help mailshar --help
Please refer to the appropriate RCS man pages for additional information on using the shar, unshar, uudecode, and uuencode commands.
A few examples of uses of the shar command appear below:
shar *.c > cprog.shar
shar -Q *.[ch] > cprog.shar
shar -B -l28 -oarc.sh. *.arc
shar -f /lcl/src/u*.c > u.sh
Version 4.2 of the shar utilities will become the system default on Wednesday,
November 6, and you will no longer have to set it up.
If you have any further questions about using the shar utilities, please contact the consultants at the ACS Help Desk locations, or direct electronic mail to consult@rpi.edu.