
EPZip - the simple free distribution preparing tool


EPZip is released under GNU General Public Licence; see file COPYING
for details.


EPZip is a tool for preparing software distributions. It will take any
number of input files, compress them using the deflation method, and
write the result in a specified output file (in format compatible with
PKZip and Info-ZIP).


EPZip is called with one of the following syntax:

	epzip outfile infile [ infile [ infile ... ] ]

	epzip outfile @listfile

where `outfile' is the name of the output file. EPZip does not assume
the extension `.zip' for the output file; you must pass the name
verbatim. Note that EPZip can't append to files; if `outfile' exists,
it will br overwritten. `listfile' is a file containing input file
names separated by whitespace. The listfile extension is handled by
the normal DJGPP filename globbing, so the above syntaces can be mixed
at will, as long as the output file is the first argument.


As DJ Delorie pointed out, EPZip doesn't do anything that can't be done
with slightly patched Info-ZIP (to add LFN support). Nevertheless, I am
releasing EPZip in the hope that someone will find it useful.


EPZip 1.00 only uses fixed Huffman codes. This degrades the compression
rate somewhat, but I have no time to change it to use dynamical Huffman
code right now. However, I intend to do so in the future.

		October 1997,			Esa Peuha
						<esa.peuha@helsinki.fi>
