NAME

       textpack - Pack and unpack Flex files containing text

SYNOPSIS

       textpack -c FLEXFILE [TEXTFILE]

       textpack -x FLEXFILE [TEXTFILE]

DESCRIPTION

       Text  Flex  files  are  used for the storage of strings by the games Exult supports. While
       expack(1) can operate on such files, using textpack  to  pack  and  unpack  them  is  more
       comfortable.

       The  first  parameter  determines  the  mode  of operation, -c stands for creation, -x for
       extraction.

   Creation
       TEXTFILE (or stdin if it is missing) is read and must conform  to  the  file  format  (see
       below).  FLEXFILE will be created containing the strings from this input.

   Extraction
       The  strings contained in FLEXFILE are extracted and written to TEXTFILE (if given, stdout
       otherwise) in the file format documented below.

   File Format
       Empty lines, and lines starting with a pound sign (#) are ignored. Other lines must  begin
       with  a number, followed by a colon (:).  The number is the index of the string and may be
       given either in decimal, in octal prefixed with 0; or in  hexadecimal  prefixed  with  0x.
       Anything  following  the colon belongs to the string and gets stored in the Flex verbatim.
       Lines are limited in length to 1024 characters.

EXAMPLES

       textpack -x text.flx
              Writes all the strings contained in text.flx to  stdout  in  the  format  discussed
              above.

       textpack -c text.flx strings.list
              Reads strings.list and puts its contents into the Flex file text.flx

   Example text file
       # An example
       0:the zeroth string
       # strings may be empty
       1:
       # holes are allowed, strings 2 to 16 will be empty
       17:string seventeen
       # 13 hexadecimal == 19 decimal, 24 octal == 20 decimal
       0x13:nineteen
       024:twenty
       # numbers need not go up
       18:eighteen
       # this will overwrite the definition from above
       19:overwritten

AUTHOR

       This  manpage was written by Robert Bihlmeyer. It may be freely redistributed and modified
       under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 or higher.

SEE ALSO

       expack(1), exult(6)