UNZIPping older .ZIP files

[Joe Caverly]

I have many .ZIP files from the late 80's/early 90's.

The version of PKZIP/PKUNZIP that I purchased back then, 2.04g, has no problem unZIPping these files.

FILE.EXE from Cygwin shows;

c:\users\jlc\downloads\technotes>file tn8902.zip
tn8902.zip: Zip archive data, at least v1.0 to extract

When I try to unzip the files from TCC, errors are encountered.

c:\users\jlc\downloads\technotes>ver

TCC  22.00.41 x64   Windows 7 [Version 6.1.7601]

c:\users\jlc\downloads\technotes>which unzip
unzip is an internal command

c:\users\jlc\downloads\technotes>unzip tn8902.zip
TCC: Error in archive C:\Users\jlc\Downloads\TechNotes\TN8902.ZIP :
  Error while decompressing content.FEB_TIPS.ASC
TCC: Error in archive C:\Users\jlc\Downloads\TechNotes\TN8902.ZIP :
  Error while decompressing content.GARY_TL.ASC
TCC: Error in archive C:\Users\jlc\Downloads\TechNotes\TN8902.ZIP :
  Error while decompressing content.JAN_ANOM.ASC
TCC: Error in archive C:\Users\jlc\Downloads\TechNotes\TN8902.ZIP :
  Error while decompressing content.MANAGAGI.ASC
TCC: Error in archive C:\Users\jlc\Downloads\TechNotes\TN8902.ZIP :
  Error while decompressing content.TN_DISCL.ASC
TCC: Error in archive C:\Users\jlc\Downloads\TechNotes\TN8902.ZIP :
  Error while decompressing content.TN_INFO.ASC
TCC: Error in archive C:\Users\jlc\Downloads\TechNotes\TN8902.ZIP :
  Error while decompressing content.TN_USE.ASC
TCC: Error in archive C:\Users\jlc\Downloads\TechNotes\TN8902.ZIP :
  Error while decompressing content.UDFS.ASC

c:\users\jlc\downloads\technotes>dir *.asc

 Volume in drive C is WINDOWS      Serial number is d4d0:ce4e
 Directory of  C:\Users\jlc\Downloads\TechNotes\*.asc

 4/23/2018   7:50               0  FEB_TIPS.ASC
 4/23/2018   7:50               0  GARY_TL.ASC
 4/23/2018   7:50               0  JAN_ANOM.ASC
 4/23/2018   7:50               0  MANAGAGI.ASC
 4/23/2018   7:50               0  TN_DISCL.ASC
 4/23/2018   7:50               0  TN_INFO.ASC
 4/23/2018   7:50               0  TN_USE.ASC
 4/23/2018   7:50               0  UDFS.ASC
                   0 bytes in 8 files and 0 dirs

The functions in this .BTM return no errors;

@setlocal
@echo off
set thefile=tn8902.zip
set fileN=1
echo zipcfile[%thefile,%fileN]      %@zipcfile[tn8902.zip,%fileN]
echo zipcfilesize[%thefile,%fileN]  %@zipcfilesize[tn8902.zip,%fileN]
echo zipcount[%thefile]             %@zipcount[%thefile]
echo zipdfile[%thefile]             %@zipdfile[%thefile,%fileN]
echo zipdfilesize[%thefile,%fileN]  %@zipdfilesize[%thefile,%fileN]
echo zipfilecrc[%thefile,%fileN]    %@zipfilecrc[%thefile,%fileN]
echo zipfiledate[%thefile,%fileN]   %@zipfiledate[%thefile,%fileN]
endlocal

c:\users\jlc\downloads\technotes>testzip.btm
zipcfile[tn8902.zip,1]      GARY_TL.ASC
zipcfilesize[tn8902.zip,1]  18660
zipcount[tn8902.zip]             8
zipdfile[tn8902.zip]             GARY_TL.ASC
zipdfilesize[tn8902.zip,1]  41397
zipfilecrc[tn8902.zip,1]    FC88FBC
zipfiledate[tn8902.zip,1]   1989-08-03 02:44:24

One of the .ZIP files, TN8902.ZIP, is attached to this message.

Joe

 

[rconn]

The TCC zip support (a third-party module) supports Zip 2.0 (1993) and newer.

 

[Charles Dye]

I'm not certain, but there may be legal issues. I think PKZIP used some proprietary compression algorithms. It's possible that one or more may still be proprietary.

 

[JohnQSmith]

Open source Info-ZIP has no problems with it.

[C:\test]
14:09:01 $ unzip
UnZip 6.00 of 20 April 2009, by Info-ZIP.  Maintained by C. Spieler.  Send
bug reports using http://www.info-zip.org/zip-bug.html; see README for details.

Usage: unzip [-Z] [-opts[modifiers]] file[.zip] [list] [-x xlist] [-d exdir]
  Default action is to extract files in list, except those in xlist, to exdir;
  file[.zip] may be a wildcard.  -Z => ZipInfo mode ("unzip -Z" for usage).

  -p  extract files to pipe, no messages     -l  list files (short format)
  -f  freshen existing files, create none    -t  test compressed archive data
  -u  update files, create if necessary      -z  display archive comment only
  -v  list verbosely/show version info       -T  timestamp archive to latest
  -x  exclude files that follow (in xlist)   -d  extract files into exdir
modifiers:
  -n  never overwrite existing files         -q  quiet mode (-qq => quieter)
  -o  overwrite files WITHOUT prompting      -a  auto-convert any text files
  -j  junk paths (do not make directories)   -aa treat ALL files as text
  -C  match filenames case-insensitively     -L  make (some) names lowercase
  -$  label removables (-$$ => fixed disks)  -V  retain VMS version numbers
  -X  restore ACLs (-XX => use privileges)   -s  spaces in filenames => '_'
                                             -M  pipe through "more" pager
See "unzip -hh" or unzip.txt for more help.  Examples:
  unzip data1 -x joe   => extract all files except joe from zipfile data1.zip
  unzip -fo foo ReadMe => quietly replace existing ReadMe if archive file newer

0:00:00.06
[C:\test]
14:09:08 $ dir

 Volume in drive C is unlabeled    Serial number is 262b:d729
 Directory of  C:\test\*

 5/09/2018  14:08         <DIR>    .
 5/09/2018  14:08         <DIR>    ..
 5/09/2018  14:03          37,842  TN8902.ZIP
              37,842 bytes in 1 file and 2 dirs    40,960 bytes allocated
      62,920,687,616 bytes free

0:00:00.01
[C:\test]
14:09:09 $ unzip TN8902.ZIP
Archive:  TN8902.ZIP
unshrinking: FEB_TIPS.ASC
unshrinking: GARY_TL.ASC
unshrinking: JAN_ANOM.ASC
unshrinking: MANAGAGI.ASC
unshrinking: TN_DISCL.ASC
unshrinking: TN_INFO.ASC
unshrinking: TN_USE.ASC
unshrinking: UDFS.ASC

0:00:00.06
[C:\test]
14:09:20 $ dir

 Volume in drive C is unlabeled    Serial number is 262b:d729
 Directory of  C:\test\*

 5/09/2018  14:09         <DIR>    .
 5/09/2018  14:09         <DIR>    ..
 8/02/1989  22:29           6,812  FEB_TIPS.ASC
 8/02/1989  22:44          41,397  GARY_TL.ASC
 8/02/1989  22:30           2,621  JAN_ANOM.ASC
 8/02/1989  22:30           9,937  MANAGAGI.ASC
 5/09/2018  14:03          37,842  TN8902.ZIP
 8/05/1989  18:19           2,329  TN_DISCL.ASC
 8/02/1989  22:30           2,631  TN_INFO.ASC
 8/02/1989  22:45           1,368  TN_USE.ASC
 8/02/1989  22:30           6,730  UDFS.ASC
             111,667 bytes in 9 files and 2 dirs    131,072 bytes allocated
      62,920,638,464 bytes free