sharutils in Launchpad

sharutils

Registered 2005-01-21 by Registry Administrators

GNU shar and unshar are used to create packages of binary files that are safe to transmit over old-style email services that don't handle binary files well.

GNU shar makes so-called shell archives out of many files, preparing them for transmission by electronic mail services. A shell archive is a collection of files that can be unpacked by /bin/sh. A wide range of features provide extensive flexibility in manufacturing shars and in specifying shar smartness. For example, shar may compress files, uuencode binary files, split long files and construct multi-part mailings, ensure correct unsharing order, and provide simplistic checksums.

GNU unshar scans a set of mail messages looking for the start of shell archives. It will automatically strip off the mail headers and other introductory text. The archive bodies are then unpacked by a copy of the shell. unshar may also process files containing concatenated shell archives.