ComprEXE v1.0 - EXE/COM compression tool Copyright (c) 1997 by Tom Torfs, all rights reserved -= MANUAL =- 0.1 Table of contents -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 0.1 Table of contents 1.1 Overview 2.1 Commandline usage 3.1 ComprEXE operation notes 4.1 Contacting the author 5.1 Errors, warnings & errorlevels 6.1 Credits 7.1 Licence 7.2 Disclaimer 1.1 Overview -=-=-=-=-=-= ComprEXE is an executable compressor. This means that it can make most COM and EXE files a whole lot smaller, while keeping them executable. ComprEXE was primarily designed to be used together with ProtEXE. It uses a similar command line and error handling method. 2.1 Commandline usage -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- COMPREXE [.EXE|.COM] [[.EXE|.COM]] [-o] [-k] [-e] [-h] * Command line basics * is the name of the executable to compress. is the name of the compressed executable. If you omit , will be replaced and the original file will be stored as .OLD (unless you use option -o). If no extension is provided, .EXE or .COM is automatically appended. You can specify multiple options on the command line to customize ComprEXE's behaviour. Note that for all options you can use the / switch character instead of the - character if you prefer. An overview of the command line options can be displayed by putting the parameter /? (or -?) on the commandline. * General options * [-o] If option -o is given, the original file will be deleted instead of renamed to .OLD. Using this option is not recommended. This option is ignored if an output file is specified. [-k] When the compression fails by default the target file is erased (or in case of the one-parameter form, the old file is left unchanged). When you specify option -k the file is written anyway. * EXE-only options * [-e] EXE files contain the length of actual code/data in their header. Sometimes the EXE file contains data after this, which is not loaded when the program is run, but which might be read separately afterwards (overlays). This may also be debug info, used by a symbolic debugger (such as Turbo Debugger), but not required by the program itself. It may also be the 'new executable' part for Windows, OS/2, ... executables. If option -e is given, any extra data in an EXE-file is simply copied into the target file, instead of being stripped off. This doesn't guarantee that the extra data is still useful after the compression. If you get the 'stripping extra data' warning and the compressed program doesn't work, you should try using this option. [-h] Option -h disables packing the header. All additional information in the EXE header will be copied to the target file. 3.1 ComprEXE operation notes -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ComprEXE adds a little decompression module to the program. This module moves itself to the top of memory, decompresses the program and performs all necessary segment relocations, restores the stack etc., and then jumps to the original entry point. It is generally impossible to use ComprEXE multiple times on a program; the compressed program can't be compressed any further. 4.1 Contacting the author -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- See the chapter "Contacting the author" in PROTEXE.DOC. 5.1 Errors, warnings & errorlevels -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= These are the errors and warnings that ComprEXE may give: ERROR E01: bad option: