Compression

[Scott Turchin]

Does anyone know how a Windows self-extracting .EXE file is made?

I saw code for compression, but lets say I have 5 files and I want to send them all in one self - extracting EXE (And Winzip is not licensed for this, whereas LHA is)....Well, the dos box LHA decompression confuses people, whereas Winzip is excellent, but just not licensed to send self extracting .EXE's (For some weird reason)....

Anyway, just tossing it up in the air whether to reinvent the whell or shell out and run LHA to compress with...


Scott

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Scott
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[E B Knoppert]

I'm busy to build cab files using the 2 MS FCI/FDI libs.
Compressing is done, currently busy with the extract part.

But... i also did the common LZEXPAND stuff.
Frankly, this is much faster because it's RLE.
The cab compression depends on larger amounts of data.
LZ is VERY easy to do from resources for example.
This way it's easy to build an installer from 1 single exe.

I just want to be able to extract cab files but i recommend LZexpand.

In this case you need the simple COMPRESS.EXE wich is in VB3 but also on the MS site.
(Yep... DOS compress)


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[Steve Hutchesson]

Scott,

If you are going to spend money on a compression tool, have a look
at Winrar, it has very high powered compression, SFX capacity
and will run in Silent mode if you need it to for installations.

The cost in terms of time and research in compression says its
economical to buy it rather than develop it.

[email protected]

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[E B Knoppert]

Just posted the source for CAB files.
FCI and FDI are free lib files from MS(!)


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[Don Dickinson]

I have an inexpensive shareware tool written in pbcc & pbdll that does what you need. The registration includes pbcc/pbdll source code. The compression is kind of slow, but decompression is fast. www.basicguru.com/dickinson

Best Regards,
Don

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[Matthew Berg]

The registered version of WinZip Self Extractor licenses you to create an unlimited number of freely distributable royalty-free self-extracting Zip files.

[Scott Turchin]

Winzip, to my knowledge, does not have the ability to put a license agreement statement and disable decompression if the user does not accept.

Since there have been legal issues arising out of customers using patches (TD's as we call them for Test Diskettes), we require the user to agree that he will not hold the company liable (and it held up in court), I don't know of any way Winzip can do that...)


So hence it's a great idea using Winzip self extractor (I have a registered copy), but it does not solve the problem....now perhaps a shelling type program with a pkzip'd file password protected, THAT may be of some use....Hmmmmmmmmm


Now that's got me thinking....


Scott

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Scott
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Steve Hutchesson]

Scott,

There was a reason why I sugested Winrar and which is why I bought
the licence to it, it has superior compression to any other I know
and that comes from testing it against others. It will create SFX
files and there is an option to run the SFX file in "Silent" mode
so that it will self unpack complete with a directory tree structure
without displaying any dialog box at all.

All this leaves you to do is write the front end you want with the
choice to install it under the conditions you mentioned. You acheive
this by including the SFX file as a resource in the EXE file you
make and write the SFX file to disk if the user makes the correct
choice.

You then run the SFX file and when it is finished, you delete it from
disk. This allows you to do a professional standard installation
that has the exact appearance and functionality your product
requires instead of someone elses prepacked installation system.

Have fun

[email protected]

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[Knuth Konrad]

Originally posted by Steve Hutchesson:
Scott,

If you are going to spend money on a compression tool, have a look
at Winrar, it has very high powered compression, SFX capacity
and will run in Silent mode if you need it to for installations.

...AND it comes along with a free to use/distribute UNRAR.DLL which can be used by any program. I highly recommend WinRAR, too (although, as a console fan, I prefer the 32-Bit console version...)

Knuth

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[Scott Turchin]

OK Cool, got a URL for Winrar??


Scott

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Scott
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Semen Matusovski]

http://www.rarsoft.com
Also recommend to look file manager (FAR) - the most popular in Russia.
(it's pleasant that you know russian software)




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[Lance Edmonds]

If the goal is to produce an "single" installation program with password protection, you could look at using Russell Jordan's "Inno-Setup" utility. Combined with "Script-Maker", you can easily produce a compressed SETUP.EXE file, with password protection (I do not know how strong it is, but you can always ask Jordan), and you get an optional uninstall facility too.

The best part is that these tools are free!
http://www.jordanr.dhs.org/
http://www.tafweb.com/scriptmaker.html


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Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Knuth Konrad]

Originally posted by Semen Matusovski:
Also recommend to look file manager (FAR) - the most popular in Russia.
(it's pleasant that you know russian software)

Right, FAR is the most impressiv NC clone I've used so far. Can't live/work without it! Eugene is a talented programmer!

BTW, russian programmer's have a really good reputation, at least here in Germany
Knuth

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[This message has been edited by Knuth Konrad (edited April 20, 2000).]