PGMPAK FAST! Program Compress Utility Version 0.14 05-24-90 written in Bulgaria by Todor Todorov Documentation ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Introduction --------------- PGMPAK is a program that compresses .EXE or .COM files, similar to Microsoft's EXEPACK. Compressed files can be executed as regular .EXE files. The main difference between PGMPAK and EXEPACK is that PGMPAK performs a REAL compression (normally 20 to 50%), while EXEPACK rarely gives you compression over 2%. To run successfully PGMPAK you must have an IBM PC or true compatible running MS-DOS 2.0 or later and at least 256K bytes of free memory. 2. Using PGMPAK --------------- To start PGMPAK just type PGMPAK followed by the names of files you wish to compress. Each name may contain drive and/or path as well as wildcards. PGMPAK will try to compress the files that match the specified names, displaying percentage of file space saved for each compressed file. Some files couldn't be compressed, so they would be left unchanged. Example: PGMPAK *.COM *.EXE will try to compress all executable files in the current directory. While running, PGMPAK creates 1 to 3 temporary files for each file it is compressing. The default subdirectory for these files is \. PGMPAK can be told which drive and/or subdirectory to use for temporary files by setting the environment variable PKTMP. You should set PKTMP to the fastest drive you have. For example, if drive D is a RAMdisk, you can enter: SET PKTMP=D: to increase the speed of compressing. Warning: If the PKTMP variable was specified to an invalid drive and/or path, PGMPAK will abort displaying an error message! You can type Ctrl-C or Ctrl-Break to interrupt compressing. In this case, temporary files are deleted and the last file PGMPAK was compressing remains unchanged. However, you should NEVER interrupt PGMPAK after the message 'smashing (xx%)' has appeared. 3. Error messages & return codes -------------------------------- Under certain circumstances, PGMPAK will print an error message and abort, returning the corresponding code. Here are the messages: return message meaning code 0 All is OK; Some files was processed; 1 No arguments was given; Help was displayed; 2 Disk error! DOS returned an error; May be Disk full; 3 No files found! No files were found to compress; 4 Memory full! Not enough free memory to proceed; 5 Disk full! Not enough disk space for temporary files; 6 Ctrl-C or Ctrl-Break was pressed. 4. Warnings and technical notes ------------------------------- Some files that read themselves won't work properly when they're compressed by PGMPAK. There is no easy way to restore already compressed files to their original form! Before starting PGMPAK, make sure you have copies of the files you intend to compress (unless you have their source codes). Also, be cautious when specifying file names. PGMPAK would try to compress all files you specified, even if they were text ones! Beware of viruses. If you compress a file that is infected by a virus, compressed file will still have the virus, but virus scanners will not be able to find it! Algorithm used to compress files is strongly based on PKZIP 1.1 imploding. For this reason, decompression is not very fast, but if you use an 80286 machine you should have no problems. The decompressor itself is about 900 bytes long. All compressed files are in .EXE format, while some of them can still have extensions .COM (or some others). New versions of this program will be released as soon as new versions of PKZIP are released. This is a preliminary version. The probability of some bugs is relatively big. If you have any questions or comments about PGMPAK send a message to Todor Todorov at: Danbo BBS, Varna, Bulgaria Phone number: 00359-52-885703 5. Registration, etc. --------------------- No, I don't want your money! You can use or distribute PGMPAK freely. You can use it commercially (compress programs you intend to sell), but you CANNOT sell PGMPAK itself. Copyright (c) 1989,1990 Todor Todorov. All Rights Reserved. Special thanks to PKWARE and especially to Phil Katz for his excellent program PKZIP. Please distribute the file PGMPAK.ZIP rather than PGMPAK.EXE itself. This program is provided AS IS without any warranty, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to fitness for any particular purpose. In no event will the copyright owner be liable for direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from this software, even if he has been advised of the possibility of such damages. IBM, PC are trademarks of IBM Corp. Microsoft, MS-DOS are trademarks of Microsoft Corp. PKZIP is a trademark of PKWARE, Inc.