FPACK(1)                    UNIX User's Manual             November 2, 1987

NAME
     fpack - pack and unpack ascii files with simple archiving scheme

USAGE
     fpack [-fv] [files]

DESCRIPTION
     _f_p_a_c_k is a simple plain-text-file archiving scheme to either reduce
     the number of files or to package them together.  It is designed to be
     portable to systems between which files may be transferred, such as
     between UNIX and MSDOS.  It can save space on systems that use disk
     blocks for files that occupy a small part of a block.  One of the
     program's requirements is that it does not alter the format of its
     input, so files like documents or human readable data files are not
     converted to a special format.  This allows unpacking by hand in an
     emergency (e.g., the recipient of an archive does not have _f_p_a_c_k to
     unpack).

     Files are delimited by a special string at the start of a line:
          fpack:!@#$%^&*():   <filename>

OPTIONS
     -f   Forceful action.  _f_p_a_c_k will overwrite existing files it is
          unpacking and continue when it can't open files.

     -v   Verbose output.  _f_p_a_c_k will name the files it packs or unpacks.

NOTES
     Text outside file delimiters in an archive will be ignored.  So, files
     packed and sent through mailers that add header lines and trailing
     signatures will be unpacked safely.

     If a file does not end with a newline character, one will be silently
     added.

     If a file to be unpacked exists, then it will not be overwritten.
     Instead, the packed contents for the file(s) being unpacked will be
     ignored.

EXAMPLES
     Pack up some C source files.
          fpack *.c > archive
     Unpack all files.
          fpack < archive
