Lhx

Lhx - 0.88.0 - BETA
============

Lhx is a file compression utility that compresses files to an AmigaOS compatible
XZ/LZMA compressed archive. where all AmigaOS file system protection bits and
possible comments are preserved.

XZ/LZMA is the same compression method used as in the acclaimed 7-Zip.


A Quick Comparison Test
-----------------------
A test drawer with some text and exe files, size 4 273 588 bytes:
 - Unpacked:           4 273 588 B  test
 - Lhx (XZ/LZMA+lh0)   2 375 368 B  test.lhx
 - Lha (-lh6-)         2 929 454 B  test2.lha
 - Lha (-lh5-)         2 929 454 B  test.lha


Installation
------------
Run the Install file in the package, or:
  1. Copy the "Lhx" file from "C"-drawer into your own "C:" drawer.
  2. Optionally copy the documentation files; "Lhx.manual.doc.txt",
     "Lhx.readme" and "Lhx.readme.info" to presumably "SYS:Documentation/Lhx/".
  3. Done.


Examples
--------

; Pack/compress a file
1> lhx NEW mypackedfile.lhx somefile
; Or shorthand works too
1> lhx -n mypackedfile.lhx somefile

; Pack/compress a file from, and to RAM Disk:
1> lhx NEW ram:mypackedfile.lhx ram:t/usb.log

; Pack/compress a drawer and a file to RAM Disk:
1> lhx NEW ram:MyPackedGame.lhx MyGame MyGame.info

; For extracting/unpacking the files use the EXTRACT command.
1> lhx EXTRACT packed.lhx
; Or shorthand works too
1> lhx -e packed.lhx

; For extracting/unpacking to the RAM Disk:
1> lhx EXTRACT packed.lhx ram:


Changes
-------
0.88.0 beta: (2019 Dec)
 - Impoved error handling during extraction and making new archives.
 - Added checks of all files exists that are to be added into archive.
 - Implemented a test suite and added some tests for mainly NEW and EXTRACT
   switches. From now on these must pass before a new release is published.
 - Fixed bug, uppercase and mixed case of VERSION switch did not work.
 - Minor changes of output text.
0.87.0 beta: (2019 Dec)
 - Changed lzma library to use version 5.2.4 (from 5.2.1).
 - Fixed wrong default drive in assign task for readme file.
 - Removed the "self extracting archive" procedure of this archive, to
   keep it simple.
 - Renamed Lhxunpack to Lhx-unpacker.
0.86.1 beta: (2019 Mar)
 - Fixed wrong default tool in extraction script, thanks Chris Young.
 - Cosmetic fixes and changes to output messages and readme.
0.86.0 beta: (2018 May)
 - Added new option FORCE that will force certain commands. Using FORCE when 
   extracting will create all destination dirs if those are missing, and 
   without complaining.
 - Added a more graceful error message when dir not exists upon extract command.
 - Fixed missing newline before possible first error message.
0.85.1 beta: (2018 May)
 - Fixed weird issue Lhx file getting write protected.
 - Fixed Install file trying to copy with a typo in the Manual filename.
 - Fixed EXTVER tag with added sub-revision number.
 - Fixed a few typos in this readme.
0.85.0 beta: (2018 May)
 - Added output of number of files extracted.
 - Now builds an Lhxunpacker executable, apart from the normal Lhx executable.
   This new executable can only extract archives and is much smaller than the
   main executable. This exe. will be used in the "self extracting archive" in
   future releases from now on.
0.84.0 beta: (2018 Apr)
 - With this release, Lhx is out of Alpha state, and into Beta. All serious
   issues (as far as I know) are resolved.
 - Refactored the release archive into sort of a "self extracting archive". The
   idea is to extract the Lhx.lhx archive with a previous version of itself.
   (The latest version of the executable will be extracted from the
   "Lhx_temp/Lhx.lhx" file into "Lhx_temp/Lhx/Lhx", with the previous version
   located in "Lhx_temp/C/Lhx".)
 - Typos fixes in documentation.
0.83.0 alpha: (2018 Feb)
 - Implemented so only correct type of files can be extracted, through checks
   of file-headers (Magic Headers), and not solely of file extensions.
 - Fixed a few other issues regarding filetypes/fileheaders.
 - When extracting, the destination dir is checked that it really is a
   directory and not a regular file.
 - Fixed its own directory for the documentation in AutoInstall.
 - Clarified and fixed typos in help/documentation.
 - Among other things.
0.82.0 alpha: (2018 Feb)
 - Fixed a number of bugs.
 - Checks that the files to be archived / extracted to actually exists.
 - A lot of internal refactoring.
 - Implemented a logger (RAM:T/Lhx.log), to help finding bugs (although not all
   operations are logged (yet)).
 - Other miscellaneous fixes and improvements.
0.81.0 alpha: (2018 Feb)
 - Fixed bugs/issues with files not found and old temp. files.
 - Corrected wrong months in Recent section, thanks MickJT.
 - Added Install and AutoInstall files.
 - Added icons for the readme, etc.
 - Clarified readme and help text.
0.80.0 alpha: (2018 Feb)                                                       
 - 7z superseded by XZ/LZMA and program renamed to Lhz (from L7z), thanks for
   suggestion Fredrik Wikström. XZ/LZMA is a subset of 7z (used in 7-Zip).
 - Miscellaneous fixes and improvements.
0.7.0 alpha: (2018 Jan)
 - First public release.

...//snip//

    (See the doc/manual for more information.)


Requirements
------------
LhA version 2.15+
Xad_7z recommended


Author(s)
---------
- Lhx, developed by Marko K. Seppänen
- Liblzma port, by Fredrik Wikström
- XZ, by The Tukaani Project (Lasse Collin, Antti Aalto, Ville Koskinen, Daniel
  Liljeqvist, Jaakko Pallari, Mikko Pouru, and more..., see
  https://tukaani.org/about.html )
- Liblzma, written by Lasse Collin
- 7z (LZMA/LZMA2), by Igor Pavlov
- LZMA, Lempel-Ziv-Markov chain algorithm


Other credit(s)
---------------
Fredrik Wikström, Chris Young, Sven Ottemann


Homepage
--------
http://m4rko.com/amiga