 Welcome to
Paul Simpson's "Doctor Dos" ZIP HELP Site.. Its just what the Doctor Ordered...
Important Announcement....PKZIP v2.50 for Dos Released..
Here is my offer of help for those having problem working with zip. If you have a problem, I will try to help if you drop me an E-mail..
Please E-mail me if you have any programs available, and I will forward an S.A.E. and necessary disks...Thank You..
Examples of Using Zip
To Zip the Windows Directory and its Sub-Directories into a zip file called WINBACK.ZIP ...use pkzip -rp c:winback.zip c:\windows\*.* The -rp requests that zip recurse's (-r), and the path is stored (-p). The *.*, indicates All files including hidden. A file called Winback.zip will be created on the main route of Drive C ... This can be used just as easy to do any backup. It would not matter if there were no other directory levels so -rp could be used as a standard.
To include the option to output to drive a: making a backup onto floppy use this.. pkzip -rp& a:winback.zip c:\windows\*.* The only difference is that we have directed the output to A and used -&, which indicates the need to request another disk when full.
To Restore your files is as easy. The fact that we have stored the directory names means they will be re-created wherever we want. Using pkunzip -d c:winback.zip c: will restore the zip fully. The -d indicates to restore the directory sub-levels. If you only instruct zip to restore to C: it will re-create the Windows directory and all its lower levels. This is useful if you are moving files to a blank drive. In the case of restoring SPANNED backups the restore format is the same, use this..pkunzip -d a:winback.zip c:. This will cause zip to ask you to place the last disk in the drive first, after which you will be requested to enter the disks from #1 to whatever.
Be careful when using some auto-zip packages as they do not store empty directories, and when restoring, do not re-create either empty directories, or directory sub-levels as the (-d) is required to do this.. XTGOLD springs to mind. I have had mail from those not knowing how to use zip, and feeling bad because they can't get to grips with the command structure. Don't worry about it.. you could download rurpkzp.zip and rurpkup.zip off my G0RUR's Easy Doc's section which offers the basic commands, or I will be happy to help.. The best thing I can advise in an emergency is to convert the zip to an exe using Zip2exe, then you just run the file to unpack it without having to have pkunzip.exe.
If you use this.. zip2exe winpack.zip, it will create an exe of the same name, and you will still have the original zip file. When you run the exe you use the same -d, that you would if it still had a .zip extension to re-create the sub-levels. i.e. winback -d c: would re-create the windows directory and its sub-levels on Drive C exactly the same as the zip would. The benefit is in not needing a copy of pkunzip.exe to perform the operation.
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