RE: RAR under linux: any alternative?

["Seth Goodman" <sethg@GoodmanAssociates.com>]

> From: Steve Lamb [mailto:grey@dmiyu.org]
> Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 11:49 AM
> To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
> Subject: Re: RAR under linux: any alternative?
>
>
> Mike McCarty wrote:
> > It is distributed with a BSD like license. IOW, you can
> > redistribute, and source is available, but they retain
> > rights. But no charge (unless you meant something
> > different by the term "free").
>
>     Free of patent and royalty issues which ZIP is not entirely.  :)

I know this is a Debian list, but there is Windows tool called 7-zip
that is distributed under the LGPL that can deal with zip, tar, gz and
bz2.  This makes me suspect that there cannot be any patent hindrances
to the zip format itself.  This tool, like RAR, can create a split
archive with whatever size the user specifies.  Zip files do have CRC's
for each file they contain that are made at the time of file
compression, and this is no different for RAR.  Only the formats
supported are different.  It also has support for rpm, deb and cab
files, and some support for decompressing RAR, but I haven't tried that.

Since my Windows and Debian boxes are connected through SAMBA, I have no
problem running the 7-zip tool on a Windows box and leaving the result
on a Debian machine.  Yes, this is both impure and heretical and I
expect to be flamed all the way to the gates of hell for mentioning it.
Like Mike, I am a practical person and use whatever tool I need to get a
job done.  While I prefer GPL'd tools for the same reason we all do,
sometimes you have to use a closed source tool to accomplish a task.
When a commercial software vendor recently asked me to provide him a
particular large file in RAR format with PAR files, I didn't argue or
attempt to "educate" him on the merits of GPL'd software, I just gave
him what he needed.  Same goes for what my clients request.  Zealotry is
bad for business.

--

Seth Goodman