VMS/UNIX compress: so far, so good

[Jeffrey W Percival]

I now have a VMS compress program (the DECUS one, I think), and the
source to compile on my ULTRIX system.  Here is my next question:  I am
confused by the issue of differing file types (private format, foreign,
unix, etc) between the two systems.

I have a FORTRAN-produced VMS text file, and I want it on my ULTRIX system
via binary kermit of a compressed file.  I have tried things like this:

successful method:
    compress file on remote VMS machine
    kermit it to local ULTRIX machine
    decnet copy it do the local VMS machine
    decompress it on the local VMS machine
    run "exchange copy file1 file2/carriage_control=carriage_return"
    decnet copy file2 to my ULTRIX machine
    (whew!)

Questions:  Which of these steps can be done on the remote machine,
or optimized out?  What is "VMS private format"?  Will the "-X"
option on the VMS compress eliminate any steps?  I would like to
cut out using the local VMS machine if possible by doing the uncompress
in ULTRIX, but I am being foiled by this file-type issue.
-- 
Jeff Percival (jwp at larry.sal.wisc.edu)