NSPARK(1)                                                            NSPARK(1)



NAME
       nspark - unpack Archimedes archives

SYNOPSIS
       nspark [ options ] archive [ file ......  ]

DESCRIPTION
       The current version of nspark is 1.7.8

       Nspark  can  unpack  the  specified Archimedes-format archive, list its
       contents or tests its integrity.

       Nspark's main features are:

       o Supports all archive methods used by !Spark 1 and 2. The old  version
       didn't  support "Squashing" and used to handle "Compressed" archives by
       using the UNIX uncompress program. The new version supports both  these
       and has them built-in, allowing easier porting to other OS's.

       o Supports ArcFS format archives.

       o  Supports  Cyclic  Redundancy  Checking  (CRC).  The  integrity of an
       archive can now be checked without having to unarchive it.

       o Supports verbose option to allow archive file details to be displayed
       (time/date or exec/load address, size, type).

       o  Supports selective file unarchiving, so the whole archive needn't be
       unarchived if not all the files are wanted).

       o Supports user-prompting before overwriting a file, allowing the  user
       to  either  (1)  overwrite  the  file, (2) overwrite all the files, (3)
       unarchive the file to a different name, or (4)  not  to  unarchive  the
       file at all.

       o  Supports  file-stamping so the date and time of the file, when unar-
       chived, matches the date and time it was archived (not 4.2BSD or SysV.2
       as these systems lack vital library functions).

       I  have not included support for creating !Spark archives, and I am not
       really sure if I need to as: (1) !Spark for RISC  OS  is  cheap  (#5.99
       from  David  Pilling),  (2) !SparkPlug can unpack archives created with
       zip (which is available in source form for UNIX, VMS  and  MSDOS),  and
       (3) it's a lot of work. Let me know what you think.

       Options:

       -x        Extract the given file, or all files if none are specified.

       -u        Equivalent to -x.

       -t        Test  archive integrity by simulating extraction and checking
                 the CRCs (Cyclic Redundancy Checks).

       -l        List archive contents.

       -q        Quiet.  Displays less information when  listing,  testing  or
                 extracting.

       -f        Force  file  overwrite if a file already exists with the same
                 name as the one being extracted. If not using -f then you are
                 prompted  whether  you  want  to overwrite the original, skip
                 this file, give it a different name, or  overwrite  this  and
                 all others that already exist.

       -s        No  filestamp.  Does  not  set  the timestamp when extracting
                 files.

       -v        Verbose.  Gives  full  details  when  listing  or  extracting
                 archives.

       -p<pass>  Password.  Specifies the password used to garble the archive.

       -R        Retry if archive is corrupt.  If a bad header is  found  then
                 nspark will search the archive until another header if found,
                 rather than giving up.

       -L<name>  Set name of log file to name.

       -T        Append file type to name, in the same way as Tar or NFS.  For
                 example  Text  files  (filetype &FFF) have ,fff appended when
                 extracted.

       -C        Create lowercase filenames.  Useful  on  machines  where  the
                 case  of  filenames  is  significant  (eg. UNIX), this option
                 forces all extracted filenames to be lowercase.

       -V        Display version number.

BUGS
       The DOS version does not time/date stamp directories.

NOTES
       Nspark is in the public domain.  It is currently  being  maintained  by
       James Woodcock (james_woodcock@yahoo.co.uk).

SEE ALSO
       arcfs(5), spark(5).

AUTHOR
       Andy     Duplain,     BT     Customer     Systems,     Brighton,    UK.
       (duplain@btcs.bt.co.uk)

CONTRIBUTORS
       Improvements from version  1.5,  including  ArcFS  support,  by  Andrew
       Brooks (arb@compl.ancs.ac.uk).

       Manual pages originally supplied by Duncan (m91dps@ecs.oxford.ac.uk).

       Suggestions for improvement by Tom Tromey (tromey@busco.lanl.gov).

       Windows NT support by Alun Jones (auj@aber.ac.uk).

       Previously maintained by arb (arb@comp.lancs.ac.uk).



USER COMMANDS                                                        NSPARK(1)
