LHA v2.11 HELP GUIDE

                 by Irv Hoff, cleared by Yoshi-san

                            3 March 1991


LHA v2.11 - WHAT IS IT?
-----------------------

     LHA v2.11 is a dual purpose archive program.

     1)  Its primary purpose is to take normal binary or text files
         and make them smaller in size.  This saves great amounts of
         storage space, with typical results being approximately 1/4
         to 1/3 of original size.  It can handle any size file that
         can be placed on the disk, together with the compressed file
         it then makes.  Files in excess of 1 Mb may be easily used,
         even though perhaps only 200 Kb RAM might be available.

         This eliminates any potential problems from one computer to
         another.

         It does this with by using special "compression tables."
         These are automatically built into the program and involve
         mathematical procedures which are simple for a computer.

     2)  The secondary purpose is to take more than one of these
         programs and include them in just one file, although each
         will have its own individual name inside that file.

               This is called an "archive."  In the days of
               CP/M, they were called "library" files.  In the
               early days of MS-DOS (and other comparable pro-
               grams used by IBM computers) they were called
               .ARC files.

               However, as other comparable programs appeared,
               they were given various "extents" to identify
               the program used.  Some sample names are .ARC,
               .DWC, .LZH, .PAK, .ZIP, .ZOO, etc.

               Each has its own special characteristics.
               Lists comparing the various programs are
               available.


ARCHIVE FILES
-------------

     LHA v2.11 can have hundreds of files in a single .LZH archive.
     This allows storing complete hard disk directories in a space
     typically 1/2 or less the original total - although many of the
     files might already be archived.

     One such check we tried, made a file we called "TEST.LZH."  It
     had 200 files and was 41% the original directory size.

     Not only is this a great saving in size for storage, but puts
     (in this case), the 200 files into one, single file.  This is
     often beneficial.  Among other things, all files associated with
     one program are kept together in the same archive.


------------------------------------------------------------------------

SIMPLE INSTRUCTIONS FOR USING LHA v2.11
---------------------------------------

     1)  To compress one file called ABC.TXT.  (It will make a
         file called ABC.LZH.)

'a'               LHA a ABC ABC.TXT
             or
'a'               LHA a ABC.LZH ABC.TXT
                      ^    ^       ^
                      a    b       c


                  a  =  command
                  b  =  archive program name
                  c  =  pgm (or pgms) to be added/compressed


         Either is suitable, one requires more typing.

         a)  In this case, the "a" is called a command.  There are
             12 of those available (shown below).  A few are dupli-
             cates to initially help users more familiar with other
             programs.

             Typing LHA <ret> will display this list on the screen.
             It also gives a very short summary what the command
             does.


     2)  ADDING a program to an existing file:

'a'               LHA a ABC ABC.DOC
                         ^
                         archive name


     3)  ADDING SEVERAL files at one time:

'a'               LHA a ABC PGM1.EXT PGM2.EXT PGM3.EXT
                         ^
                         archive name


     4) DELETING a file called PGM4.EXT:

'd'               LHA d ABC PGM4
                         ^
                         archive name


     5) EXTRACTING a file called PGM4.EXT:

'e'  (or 'x')     LHA e ABC PGM4
                         ^
                         archive name


     6) LOOKING at the archive contents:

'l'  (or 'v')     LHA l ABC PGM4
                         ^
                         archive name


     7) MOVES files into archive and deletes file from directory:

'm'               LHA m ABC PGM1 PGM2 PGM3
                         ^
                         archive name


     8) DISPLAY a text file in an archive:

'p'               LHA p ABC PGM4
                         ^
                         archive name


     9) TEST the integrity of an archive:

't'               LHA t ABC PGM4
                         ^
                         archive name


          NOTE:  LHA.EXE makes both "long and short SFX files."
                 Check the advanced .DOC file for information.
                 It has a quite extensive discussion on the SFX
                 files.


COMMANDS:
---------

     There are 12 commands available.

     The 'l' and 'v' are very slightly different, the 'v' putting
     the file name on a line by itself.)  The 'e' and 'x' are
     slightly different, as well.

     These are listed by typing just LHA without any command of
     file name:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  <command>
     a: Add files           u: Update files        m: Move files
     f: Freshen files       d: Delete files        p: disPlay files
     e: Extract files       x: eXtract files with pathnames
     l: List of files       v: View listing of files with pathnames
     s: make a Self-extracting archive   t: Test the integrity of an archive


OPTIONS
-------

     There are 15 "options" which many users will not need/use.
     They will be explained in detail in the LHA211.DOC manual for
     advanced users.  Those are:


  <option>
     r: Recursively collect files        w: assign Work directory
     x: allow eXtended file names        m: no Message for query
     p: distinguish full Path names      c: skip time-stamp Check
     a: allow any Attributes of files    z: Zero compression (only store)
     t: archive's Time-stamp option      h: select Header level (default = 1)
     o: use Old compatible method        n: display No indicator a/o pathname
     i: not Ignore lower case            l: display Long name with indicator
     -: '-' or '@' as the first letter of filenames
===============================================================================

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