zcat (Was pictures)

[John Campbell]

A while ago I posted my 3b1 ``picture'' program to unix-pc.sources.  (If you
didn't get it and are still interested send me a note.)  The source code
popens ("zcat pfile"); in order to allow the pictures to live as compressed
data on the disk (huge disk savings).

A number of people don't seem to know about ``zcat''.  ``zcat'' is like
``uncompress'', it is just a link to the ``compress'' file.  If you look
at the source (it is public domain) you'll see that compress checks
argv[0] to determine if it started as ``compress'', ``uncompress', or
``zcat''. ``ls -il compress uncompress'' should show a link count of at
least two and the same inode number.  Just ``ln compress zcat'' and you've
got the zcat program.

I also vaguely remember someone stating that AT&T installs often put a
new compress in place.  This was a problem for some reason, but I can't
remember what the real issue was.  Hopefully someone will take pity, and
do a follow up to this article (or add the info to commonly asked 3b1
questions).
-- 
	John Campbell               ...!arizona!naucse!jdc
                                    CAMPBELL at NAUVAX.bitnet
	unix?  Sure send me a dozen, all different colors.