FTP File-Naming conventions

[Daniel Albano (1)]

On Wed, 23 Oct 1996, Thomas Dowling wrote:

> >.tar       this stands for tape archive, or it once did.  Now it's just
> >               another compression format usually used to lump together
> >          several related files.  The program tar will uncompress this
> >         format. (note: the appropriate mode setting is Binary)
> 
> Strictly speaking, I don't believe tar includes any compression; it just
> mushes multiple files together.  A lot of Unix software is distributed in
> .tar.Z or .tar.gz format; tar'd to make sure you get all the files, and
> then compressed (.Z) or gzipped (.gz) for compression.  Send as binary in
> any case.

	True.  tar does not compress unless you use the -z or -Z
	options.  An alternate postfix is .tgz  (=.tar.gz).

	To really know what a lot of these mean, you have to know
	the environment, and sometimes the application, that the
	file came from.  As Thomas pointed out, .DOC is often 	
	not just a simple ASCII text file.  Others are, generally,
	unambiguous.  When in doubt, make binary your first choice
	of transfer method.


--
Daniel Albano                           daniel at nypl.north-york.on.ca
Computer Services                       +1 416 395 5907

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