File-Unpack

File::Unpack is an aggressive unpacker for archive files. We call it aggressive, because it recursivly descends into any freshly unpacked file, if it appears to be an archive itself.
It also uncompresses files where needed. The ultimate goal of File::Unpack is
to extract as much readable text (ascii or any other encoding) as possible.
Most of the currently known archive file formats are supported.

While The following perl modules are considered helpful, although we may run
perfectly okay, if only a subset of these is available:

 - File::LibMagic, File::MimeInfo::Magic
   File::LibMagic is preferred, its underlying libmagic is activly maintained.
    Its database is very large, and it is much faster than File::MimeInfo::Magic
    Beware, that File::MimeInfo::Magic may derive a mimetype from the suffix, if 
    nothing else works. 
 - IO::Uncompress::AnyUncompress	(perl-IO-Compress)
 - IO::Uncompress::AnyInflate
  - Compress::Raw::Bzip2
  - Compress::Raw::Zlib
 - Archive::Zip
 - String::ShellQuote

Do not use:
 - File::MMagic, File::MMagic::XS, File::Type
   These three are inferior, compared to the other options.
 - Archive::Tar
   It is pure perl, so it's a lot slower then your "/bin/tar"
   IT is heavy on memory, all will be read into memory.
 - Archive::Zip
   If you are just going to be extracting zips (and/or other archives) you are
   recommended to look at using Archive::Extract
 - "Archive::Extract" 
   tries first to determine what type of archive you are passing it, by
   inspecting its suffix. It does not do this by using Mime magic.
   Maybe this module should use something like "File::Type" to determine the
   type, rather than blindly trust the suffix.
   Set $Archive::Extract::PREFER_BIN to 1, which will prefer the use of command
   line programs and won't consume so much memory. Default: use "Archive::Tar" -.




We also rely on a range of command line utilities to be callable via the shell.


INSTALLATION

To install this module, run the following commands:

	perl Makefile.PL
	make
	make test
	make install

SUPPORT AND DOCUMENTATION

After installing, you can find documentation for this module with the
perldoc command.

    perldoc File::Unpack

You can also look for information at:

    RT, CPAN's request tracker
        http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=File-Unpack

    AnnoCPAN, Annotated CPAN documentation
        http://annocpan.org/dist/File-Unpack

    CPAN Ratings
        http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/File-Unpack

    Search CPAN
        http://search.cpan.org/dist/File-Unpack/


LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2010 Juergen Weigert

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of either: the GNU General Public License as published
by the Free Software Foundation; or the Artistic License.

See http://dev.perl.org/licenses/ for more information.

