rev and zip files

[Martin Baxter]

>Martin Baxter wrote:
>>>Richard Gaskin wrote:
>>>...  If you take the time
>>>to store the type and creator codes obtained from "the detailed files"
>>>on Mac you can even restore those when you write them out again --
>>>something the Zip format doesn't handle at all.
>>>
>> Well that's not entirely true Richard. The zip utilities for Mac that I've
>> used create a folder in the zip archive called "XtraStuf.mac".
>
>I must be old. :)  Apparently Mac extensions were added to the spec --
>from <http://www.pkware.com/company/standards/appnote/>:
>
>           Third-party Mappings:
>
>          -ZipIt Macintosh Extra Field (long) (0x2605):
>
>           The following is the layout of the ZipIt extra block
>           for Macintosh. The local-header and central-header versions
>           are identical. This block must be present if the file is
>           stored MacBinary-encoded and it should not be used if the file
>           is not stored MacBinary-encoded.
>
>           Value         Size        Description
>           -----         ----        -----------
>   (Mac2)  0x2605        Short       tag for this extra block type
>           TSize         Short       total data size for this block
>           "ZPIT"        beLong      extra-field signature
>           FnLen         Byte        length of FileName
>           FileName      variable    full Macintosh filename
>           FileType      Byte[4]     four-byte Mac file type string
>           Creator       Byte[4]     four-byte Mac creator string
>

To be honest I had no idea that it was part of the official spec either,
I'm impressed.

>
>Which Mac Zip tools use those?
>
>And do any of the Win Zip tools allows you to define the values of those
>fields for moving files cross-platform?
>

Well presumably ZipIt uses them for one, Here are some links for it that
were posted here recently. I think ZipIt was the first zip utility for Mac?

>I use Zipit 2.2.2 on MacOS 9.1 and compress files
>to / from OSX and Win without any prob.
>A trial version can be downloaded at
>http://www.maczipit.com/zipit-222.sea.bin
>or
>http://www.maczipit.com/download.html
>
>hope that helps,
>JB

I would expect that Stuffit is at least aware of archive in that format.

And I use MacZip, which is free and available from download.com. I use it
to move stuff back and forth between mac <> mac and mac <> PC routinely. I
don't know if it is using the format you quote but it would seem a bit daft
if it didn't.
Admittedly MacZip has a less than friendly interface, so I've never looked
at the geekier things it can do (you can send it command-line type commands
and arguments via applescript for instance), only ever used it by dropping
folders or archives on it, which works well enough.

Martin Baxter