Provided by: sharutils_4.15.2-3_amd64 bug

NAME

       shar - create a shell archive

SYNOPSIS

       shar [-flags] [-flag [value]] [--option-name[[=| ]value]] [<file>...]

       If  no files are specified, the list of input files is read from standard input.  Standard
       input must not be a terminal.

DESCRIPTION

       shar creates "shell archives" (or shar files) which are in text format and can be emailed.
       These  files  may be unpacked later by executing them with /bin/sh.  The resulting archive
       is sent to standard out unless the -o option is given.  A wide range of  features  provide
       extensive flexibility in manufacturing shars and in specifying shar "smartness".  Archives
       may be fairly simple (--vanilla-operation) or essentially a mailable tar archive.

       Options may be specified in any order  until  a  file  argument  is  recognized.   If  the
       --intermix-type  option  has been specified, more compression and encoding options will be
       recognized between the file arguments.

       Though this program supports uuencode-d files, they are deprecated.  If you  are  emailing
       files,  please  consider  mime-encoded files.  If you do uuencode, base64 is the preferred
       encoding method.

OPTIONS

   Specifying compression
       -p, --intermix-type
              specify compression for input files.  This option must not  appear  in  combination
              with any of the following options: vanilla-operation.

              Allow  positional  parameter  options.   The compression method and encoding method
              options may be intermixed with file names.  Files named after these options will be
              processed in the specified way.

       -C program, --compactor=program
              specify  compaction  (compression)  program.   This  option may appear an unlimited
              number of times.  This option must not  appear  in  combination  with  any  of  the
              following options: vanilla-operation.

              The  gzip,  bzip2  and  compress compactor commands may be specified by the program
              name  as  the  option  name,  e.g.  --gzip.   Those  options,  however,  are  being
              deprecated.   There  is  also  the  xz  compactor  now.   Specify  xz with -C xz or
              --compactor=xz.

                      Specifying the compactor "none" will disable file compression.   Compressed
              files  are  never  processed  as  plain  text.   They  are always uuencoded and the
              recipient must have uudecode to unpack them.

              Specifying the compactor compress is deprecated.

       -g level, --level-of-compression=level
              pass LEVEL for compression.  This option takes an integer number as  its  argument.
              The value of level is constrained to being:
                  in the range  1 through 9
              The default level for this option is:
                   9

              Some compression programs allow for a level of compression.  The default is 9, but
              this option allows you to specify something else.  This value is used by gzip,
              bzip2 and xz, but not compress.

       -j, --bzip2
              bzip2 and uuencode files.  This option may appear an unlimited number of times.

              bzip2 compress and uuencode all files prior to packing.  The recipient must have
              uudecode bzip2 in order to unpack.

              NOTE: THIS OPTION IS DEPRECATED

       -z, --gzip
              gzip and uuencode files.  This option may appear an unlimited number of times.

              gzip compress and uuencode all files prior to packing.  The recipient must have
              uudecode and gzip in order to unpack.

              NOTE: THIS OPTION IS DEPRECATED

       -Z, --compress
              compress and uuencode files.  This option may appear an unlimited number of times.

              compress and uuencode all files prior to packing.  The recipient must have uudecode
              and compress in order to unpack.

              NOTE: THIS OPTION IS DEPRECATED

       --level-for-gzip
              This is an alias for the --level-of-compression option.

              NOTE: THIS OPTION IS DEPRECATED

       -b bits, --bits-per-code=bits
              pass bits (default 12) to compress.  The default bits for this option is:
                   12

              This is the compression factor used by the compress program.

              NOTE: THIS OPTION IS DEPRECATED

   Specifying file encoding methodology
       Files may be stored in the shar either as plain text or uuencoded.  By default, the
       program selects which by examining the file.  You may force the selection for all files.
       In intermixed option/file mode, this setting may be changed during processing.

       -M, --mixed-uuencode
              decide uuencoding for each file.  This option is a member of the mixed-uuencode
              class of options.

              Automatically determine if the files are text or binary and archive correctly.
              Files found to be binary are uuencoded prior to packing.  This is the default
              behavior for shar.

              For a file to be considered a text file instead of a binary file, all the following
              should be true:

              The file does not contain any ASCII control character besides BS (backspace), HT
              (horizontal tab), LF (new line) or FF (form feed).

              The file contains no character with its eighth-bit set.

              The file contains no line beginning with the five letters "from ", capitalized or
              not.  (Mail handling programs will often gratuitously insert a > character before
              it.)

              The file is either empty or ends with a LF (newline) byte.

              No line in the file contains more than 200 characters.  For counting purpose, lines
              are separated by a LF (newline).

       -B, --uuencode
              treat all files as binary.  This option is a member of the mixed-uuencode class of
              options.

              Use uuencode prior to packing all files.  This increases the size of the archive.
              The recipient must have uudecode in order to unpack.  Compressed files are always
              encoded.

       -T, --text-files
              treat all files as text.  This option is a member of the mixed-uuencode class of
              options.

              If you have files with non-ascii bytes or text that some mail handling programs do
              not like, you may find difficulties.  However, if you are using FTP or SSH/SCP, the
              non-conforming text files should be okay.

   Specifying file selection and output modes
       -o prefix, --output-prefix=prefix
              print output to file PREFIX.nn.

              Save the archive to files prefix.01 thru prefix.nn instead of sending all output to
              standard out.  Must be specified when the --whole-size-limit or --split-size-limit
              options are specified.

              When prefix contains a % character, prefix is then interpreted as a sprintf format,
              which should be able to display a single decimal number.  When prefix does not
              contain such a % character, the string .%02d is internally appended.

       -l size, --whole-size-limit=size
              split archive, not files, to size.  This option is a member of the whole-size-limit
              class of options.  This option must appear in combination with the following
              options: output-prefix.  This option takes an integer number as its argument.  The
              value of size is constrained to being:
                  in the range  8 through 1023, or
                  in the range  8192 through 4194304

              Limit the output file size to size bytes, but don't split input files.  If size is
              less than 1024, then it will be multiplied by 1024.  The value may also be
              specified with a k, K, m or M suffix.  The number is then multiplied by 1000, 1024,
              1000000, or 1048576, respectively.  4M (4194304) is the maximum allowed.

              Unlike the split-size-limit option, this allows the recipient of the shar files to
              unpack them in any order.

       -L size, --split-size-limit=size
              split archive or files to size.  This option is a member of the whole-size-limit
              class of options.  This option must appear in combination with the following
              options: output-prefix.  This option takes an integer number as its argument.  The
              value of size is constrained to being:
                  in the range  8 through 1023, or
                  in the range  8192 through 4194304

              Limit output file size to size bytes, splitting files if necessary.  The allowed
              values are specified as with the --whole-size-limit option.

              The archive parts created with this option must be unpacked in the correct order.
              If the recipient of the shell archives wants to put all of them in a single email
              folder (file), they will have to be saved in the correct order for unshar to unpack
              them all at once (using one of the split archive options).  see: unshar Invocation.

       -I file, --input-file-list=file
              read file list from a file.

              This option causes file to be reopened as standard input.  If no files are found on
              the input line, then standard input is read for input file names.  Use of this
              option will prohibit input files from being listed on the command line.

              Input must be in a form similar to that generated by find, one filename per line.
              This switch is especially useful when the command line will not hold the list of
              files to be archived.

              If the --intermix-type option is specified on the command line, then the
              compression options may be included in the standard input on lines by themselves
              and no file name may begin with a hyphen.

              For example:
                  { echo --compact xz
                     find . -type f -print | sort
                  } | shar -S -p -L50K -o /somewhere/big

       -S, --stdin-file-list
              read file list from standard input.

              This option is actually a no-op.  It is a wrapper for --input-file-list=-.

              NOTE: THIS OPTION IS DEPRECATED

   Controlling the shar headers
       -n name, --archive-name=name
              use name to document the archive.

              Name of archive to be included in the subject header of the shar files.  See the
              --net-headers option.

       -s who@where, --submitter=who@where
              override the submitter name.

              shar will normally determine the submitter name by querying the system.  Use this
              option if it is being done on behalf of another.

       -a, --net-headers
              output Submitted-by: & Archive-name: headers.  This option must appear in
              combination with the following options: archive-name.

              Adds specialized email headers:
                  Submitted-by: who@@where
                  Archive-name: name/part##
              The who@@where is normally derived, but can be specified with the --submitter
              option.  The name must be provided with the --archive-name option.  If the archive
              name includes a slash (/) character, then the /part## is omitted.  Thus -n xyzzy
              produces:
                  xyzzy/part01
                  xyzzy/part02

              while -n xyzzy/patch produces:
                  xyzzy/patch01
                  xyzzy/patch02

              and -n xyzzy/patch01. produces:
                  xyzzy/patch01.01
                  xyzzy/patch01.02

       -c, --cut-mark
              start the shar with a cut line.

              A line saying 'Cut here' is placed at the start of each output file.

       -t, --translate
              translate messages in the script.

              Translate messages in the script.  If you have set the LANG environment variable,
              messages printed by shar will be in the specified language.  The produced script
              will still be emitted using messages in the lingua franca of the computer world:
              English.  This option will cause the script messages to appear in the languages
              specified by the LANG environment variable set when the script is produced.

   Protecting against transmission issues
       --no-character-count
              do not use `wc -c' to check size.

              Do NOT check each file with 'wc -c' after unpack.  The default is to check.

       -D, --no-md5-digest
              do not use md5sum digest to verify.

              Do not use md5sum digest to verify the unpacked files.  The default is to check.

       -F, --force-prefix
              apply the prefix character on every line.

              Forces the prefix character to be prepended to every line, even if not required.
              This option may slightly increase the size of the archive, especially if --uuencode
              or a compression option is used.

       -d delim, --here-delimiter=delim
              use delim to delimit the files.  The default delim for this option is:
                   SHAR_EOF

              Use DELIM to delimit the files in the shar instead of SHAR_EOF.  This is for those
              who want to personalize their shar files.  The delimiter will always be prefixed
              and suffixed with underscores.

   Producing different kinds of shars
       -V, --vanilla-operation
              produce very simple shars.

              This option produces vanilla shars which rely only upon the existence of echo, test
              and sed in the unpacking environment.

              It changes the default behavior from mixed mode (--mixed-uuencode) to text mode
              (--text-files).  Warnings are produced if options are specified that will require
              decompression or decoding in the unpacking environment.

       -P, --no-piping
              use temporary files between programs.

              In the shar file, use a temporary file to hold file contents between unpacking
              stages instead of using pipes.  This option is mandatory when you know the
              unpacking will happen on systems that do not support pipes.

       -x, --no-check-existing
              blindly overwrite existing files.

              Create the archive so that when processed it will overwrite existing files without
              checking first.  If neither this option nor the --query-user option is specified,
              the unpack will not overwrite pre-existing files.  In all cases, however, if --cut-
              mark is passed as a parameter to the script when unpacking, then existing files
              will be overwritten unconditionally.

                  sh shar-archive-file -c

       -X, --query-user
              ask user before overwriting files.  This option must not appear in combination with
              any of the following options: vanilla-operation.

              When unpacking, interactively ask the user if files should be overwritten.  Do not
              use for shars submitted to the net.

              Use of this option produces shars which will cause problems with some unshar-style
              procedures, particularly when used together with vanilla mode (--vanilla-
              operation).  Use this feature mainly for archives to be passed among agreeable
              parties.  Certainly, -X is not for shell archives which are to be submitted to
              Usenet or other public networks.

              The problem is that unshar programs or procedures often feed /bin/sh from its
              standard input, thus putting /bin/sh and the shell archive script in competition
              for input lines.  As an attempt to alleviate this problem, shar will try to detect
              if /dev/tty exists at the receiving site and will use it to read user replies.  But
              this does not work in all cases, it may happen that the receiving user will have to
              avoid using unshar programs or procedures, and call /bin/sh directly.  In vanilla
              mode, using /dev/tty is not even attempted.

       -m, --no-timestamp
              do not restore modification times.

              Avoid generating 'touch' commands to restore the file modification dates when
              unpacking files from the archive.

              When file modification times are not preserved, project build programs like "make"
              will see built files older than the files they get built from.  This is why, when
              this option is not used, a special effort is made to restore timestamps.

       -Q, --quiet-unshar
              avoid verbose messages at unshar time.

              Verbose OFF.  Disables the inclusion of comments to be output when the archive is
              unpacked.

       -f, --basename
              restore in one directory, despite hierarchy.

              Restore by the base file name only, rather than path.  This option causes only file
              names to be used, which is useful when building a shar from several directories, or
              another directory.  Note that if a directory name is passed to shar, the
              substructure of that directory will be restored whether this option is specified or
              not.

   Internationalization options
       --no-i18n
              do not internationalize.

              Do not produce internationalized shell archives, use default English messages.  By
              default, shar produces archives that will try to output messages in the unpackers
              preferred language (as determined by the LANG/LC_MESSAGES environmental variables)
              when they are unpacked.  If no message file for the unpackers language is found at
              unpack time, messages will be in English.

       --print-text-domain-dir
              print directory with shar messages.

              Prints the directory shar looks in to find messages files for different languages,
              then immediately exits.

   User feedback/entertainment
       -q, --quiet
              do not output verbose messages.

              omit progress messages.

       --silent
              This is an alias for the --quiet option.

       -h, --help
              Display usage information and exit.

       -!, --more-help
              Pass the extended usage information through a pager.

       -R [cfgfile], --save-opts [=cfgfile]
              Save the option state to cfgfile.  The default is the last configuration file
              listed in the OPTION PRESETS section, below.  The command will exit after updating
              the config file.

       -r cfgfile, --load-opts=cfgfile, --no-load-opts
              Load options from cfgfile.  The no-load-opts form will disable the loading of
              earlier config/rc/ini files.  --no-load-opts is handled early, out of order.

       -v [{v|c|n --version [{v|c|n}]}]
              Output version of program and exit.  The default mode is `v', a simple version.
              The `c' mode will print copyright information and `n' will print the full copyright
              notice.

OPTION PRESETS

       Any option that is not marked as not presettable may be preset by loading values from
       configuration ("RC" or ".INI") file(s).  The file "$HOME/.sharrc" will be used, if
       present.

WARNINGS

       No attempt is made to restore the protection and modification dates for directories, even
       if this is done by default for files.  Thus, if a directory is given to shar, the
       protection and modification dates of corresponding unpacked directory may not match those
       of the original.

       If a directory is passed to shar, it may be scanned more than once, to conserve memory.
       Therefore, do not change the directory contents while shar is running.

       Be careful that the output file(s) are not included in the inputs or shar may loop until
       the disk fills up.  Be particularly careful when a directory is passed to shar that the
       output files are not in that directory or a subdirectory of it.

       Use of the compression and encoding options will slow the archive process, perhaps
       considerably.

       Use of the --query-user produces shars which will cause problems with many unshar
       procedures.  Use this feature only for archives to be passed among agreeable parties.
       Certainly, query-user is NOT for shell archives which are to be distributed across the
       net.  The use of compression in net shars will cause you to be flamed off the earth.  Not
       using the --no-timestamp or --force-prefix options may also get you occasional complaints.
       Put these options into your ~/.sharrc file.

FILES

       See OPTION PRESETS for configuration files.

EXAMPLES

       The first shows how to make a shell archive out of all C program sources.  The second
       produces a shell archive with all .c and .h files, which unpacks silently.  The third
       gives a shell archive of all uuencoded .arc files, into numbered files starting from
       arc.sh.01.  The last example gives a shell archive which will use only the file names at
       unpack time.

           shar *.c > cprog.shar
           shar -Q *.[ch] > cprog.shar
           shar -B -l28 -oarc.sh *.arc
           shar -f /lcl/src/u*.c > u.sh

EXIT STATUS

       One of the following exit values will be returned:

       0  (EXIT_SUCCESS)
              Successful program execution.

       1  (EXIT_OPTION_ERROR)
              The command options were misconfigured.

       2  (EXIT_FILE_NOT_FOUND)
              a specified input could not be found

       3  (EXIT_CANNOT_OPENDIR)
              open/close of specified directory failed

       4  (EXIT_FAILED)
              Resource limit/miscelleaneous shar command failure

       63  (EXIT_BUG)
              There is a shar command bug.  Please report it.

       66  (EX_NOINPUT)
              A specified configuration file could not be loaded.

       70  (EX_SOFTWARE)
              libopts had an internal operational error.  Please report it to autogen-
              users@lists.sourceforge.net.  Thank you.

SEE ALSO

       unshar(1)

AUTHORS

       The shar and unshar programs is the collective work of many authors.  Many people
       contributed by reporting problems, suggesting various improvements or submitting actual
       code.  A list of these people is in the THANKS file in the sharutils distribution.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 1994-2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc. all rights reserved.  This program
       is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 3 or later.

BUGS

       Please put sharutils in the subject line for emailed bug reports.  It helps to spot the
       message.

       Please send bug reports to: bug-gnu-utils@gnu.org

NOTES

       This manual page was AutoGen-erated from the shar option definitions.