Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

  
 
  

home | help
DACT(1) 		     General Commands Manual			 DACT(1)

NAME
     dact - compress or expand a file or stream

SYNOPSIS
     dact  [ -dsfcvlniCHOShVNa ] [-b size] [-e algo] [-m file] [-o file] [-u url] [-p url]
     [-M command] [-D desc] [-I algo] [-U file] [-E cipher] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION
     DACT reduces input files by attempting to compress each block of  the  file
     with several different algorithms and selects the best one for each block.

OPTIONS
     -d     Decompress	the  file  (or stdin, if no file is given), removing the
	    extension if it has a valid one.

     -s     Display statistics about the file, such as: Magic  number  of  file,
	    DACT  version  file was compressed with, Block size used to compress
	    file, Compressed file size, Original file's size, Compression  ratio
	    (uncompressed  to compressed), File's original name, CRCs (if avail-
	    able).

     -f     Force bad and unsafe things to happen.  Can be combined to make even
	    worse things happen.  One `-f' allows overwriting of existing files,
	    two `-f' allows you to ignore bad magic and CRC check fails.

     -c     Send output to stdout, this will allow you to  force  DACT	to  send
	    compressed output to a terminal or result of compressing a file to a
	    pipe.

     -v     Increase  verbosity,  can  be  combined to increase verbosity a lot.
	    Currently, only up to 3 makes sense.  One `-v' displays a bar graph.
	    Two `-v' displays a bar graph and  block  information.   Three  `-v'
	    displays a bar graph and detailed compression statistics per block.

     -l     List compression algorithms available.

     -n     Toggle  use of CRCs.  This option is especially useful when combined
	    with the network capabilities of DACT.  It allows you  to  create  a
	    compressed	file  with  only  the header pointing to a web page that
	    contains the real DACT file (which normally  has  its  CRCs  checked
	    against the compressed header to ensure they're the same file), with
	    this  option the files do not have to be from the same source (i.e.,
	    you can have an updated copy automatically extend itself.)

     -i     Read input from standard input instead of /dev/tty.  This is used to
	    read user supplied information like encryption  keys  and  passwords
	    from  standard input instead of the more appropriate method of open-
	    ing "/dev/tty."

     -C     Complain when compression errors occur.  When a block  is  selected,
	    it	is  tested  to	ensure that it decompresses back to the original
	    source.  If it fails, the algorithm is not used,  with  this  option
	    you are informed of the failure.

     -H     Write only header (no data).  This option is useful for distributing
	    archives that need only reside on the internet someplace.

     -O     Toggle  writing  original  file name in the DACT header. This has no
	    real use that I know of.

     -S     Use speed-size as a metric rather than size.   This  is  not  imple-
	    mented  yet.   This  will  make  DACT create an optimized compressed
	    file, balancing speed of decompression with size.

     -h     Give usage synopsis.

     -V     Display DACT version.

     -N     Upgrade DACT.  This option will fetch the latest binary from the in-
	    ternet and place it in $HOME/.dact/ as dact.bin.  If you  have  `bi-
	    nary_check on' in your dact.conf file, DACT will check for this file
	    and  use it.  If you have Debian and run `dact -N'	 as root the De-
	    bian upgrade procedure will upgrade your entire system.

     -a     DACT modules.  This option will fetch the latest  modules  from  the
	    internet  and  place  them	in $HOME/.dact/ in a subdirectory corre-
	    sponding to your Operating System and CPU Architecture.

     -b size
	    Use the specified block size to compress the file.	The size parame-
	    ters is in bytes.

     -e num
	    Exclude an algorithm from being used.  This option is useful if  you
	    know  your target will not be able to decompress a certain algorithm
	    (you can get their numbers from the `-l' option.)

     -m file
	    Load another config file.  This option  will  attempt  to  load  the
	    specified  file in addition to the normal files, the options in this
	    file will supersede other options.

     -o file
	    Alternate output.  This option sends output to a file instead of IN-
	    FILE.dct.  The file can also be a URL or '-' for standard out.

     -u url
	    This option will encode an URL in the compressed file's header, this
	    URL will be tried (and CRCs checked) before attempting to decompress
	    the data in the actual file.

     -p url
	    URLs in DACT can have variables in them that will be  expanded  when
	    network  access  is required, this allows you to test the results of
	    that extrapolation easily.	Variables and their values are:
		@@OSNM@@	OS Name (linux, freebsd, sunos, etc)
		@@OSVR@@	OS version (2.2.x, 4.2, 5.8, etc)
		@@OSVS@@	OS version (short) (2.2, 4.2, 5.8, etc)
		@@ARCH@@	Arch (i386, sparc64, sun4u, sun4m, etc)
		@@DIST@@	If OSNM=Linux, distribution of Linux.
		@@FILE@@	Name of compressed file.
		@@DTVR@@	Version of DACT (maj.min.rev)
		@@DTVS@@	Version of DACT (short) (maj.min)
		@@PASS@@	Prompt for Password
		@@USER@@	Prompt for Username
		@@ATSN@@	Put an `@'
	      example:
		dact	     -p 	http://www.rkeene.org/devel/dact/precom-
	    piled/dact-@@OSNM@@-@@OSVS@@-@@ARCH@@.bin
		dact:	      http://www.rkeene.org/devel/dact/precompiled/dact-
	    linux-2.4-i586.bin

     -M command
	    This option executes a command from the command line as  if  it  ap-
	    peared in "dact.conf".

     -D desc
	    Encode  the  description specified into the header of the compressed
	    file.

     -I num
	    Use only 1 algorithm (and uncompressed as a  fall-back),  useful  if
	    you want to limit yourself to a certain type of compression.

     -U file
	    Encode  the  specified  file into the header of the compressed file.
	    This file will be searched (line-by-line) for a working URL to down-
	    load compressed content from.  See also `-u.'

     -E cipher
	    Enable encryption using the  specified  algorithm,	different  algo-
	    rithms use different authentication methods.

FILES
       $HOME/.dact/
       $HOME/.dact/dact.conf
       /usr/etc/dact.conf

SEE ALSO
     gzip(1), bzip2(1), mcrypt(3)

AUTHOR
     Roy Keene <dact@rkeene.org>

									 DACT(1)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=dact&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+15.1.quarterly>

home | help