(sharutils.info)shar shar-flavors

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2.1.7 shar-flavors options
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Producing different kinds of shars.

vanilla-operation option (-V).
..............................

This is the "produce very simple shars" option.  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.

no-piping option (-P).
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This is the "use temporary files between programs" option.  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.

no-check-existing option (-x).
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This is the "blindly overwrite existing files" option.  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

query-user option (-X).
.......................

This is the "ask user before overwriting files" option.

This option has some usage constraints.  It:
   * 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.

no-timestamp option (-m).
.........................

This is the "do not restore modification times" option.  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.

quiet-unshar option (-Q).
.........................

This is the "avoid verbose messages at unshar time" option.  Verbose
OFF.  Disables the inclusion of comments to be output when the archive
is unpacked.

basename option (-f).
.....................

This is the "restore in one directory, despite hierarchy" option.
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.