[Throughout this document, "$" means a normal user's shell, "#" means root's shell. Root shell can be used at all times, but I highly advise against it.]
Thanks for using Bloat!
What is Bloat?
Bloat is a basic Perl script to allow you to easily decompress files from many formats. For more detailed information, please see "README.SUPPORTEDTYPES".
Who is Bloat for?
Well, off the top of my head:
- People who are new to Linux (or any other OS this works on ;-) and keep forgetting the commands to extract archives
- People who are lazy and don't want to type in a different command for every different kind of archive (that'd be me then...)
- People who lose track of what kind of archive formats odd extensions use (read: virtually everyone)
- People who work with archive formats which don't have a single command to extract them (see: RPM)
- People who get annoyed with archives which don't put all files in a subdirectory
What do I need to use Bloat?
As long as you have the utilities to handle the filetypes you are presented with , bloat SHOULD work. To check for these utilities, type:
$ bloat --check
You'll also need Perl 5.6 (or greater) in your $PATH - you probably will.
Finally the shell that Perl uses MUST be bash, or totally compatible with bash.
dash etc do NOT work.
What systems does Bloat run on?
Theoretically bloat should run on any system with the correct utilities available; however there are several different versions of, e.g. tar, which come with different OSs. I have tested bloat on the following systems:
- Linux (of course)
- NetBSD
- Mac OS X 10.2 (Server) - lack of Linux-only archive support
The following OSs have been tried and failed:
- FreeBSD 4.8 - Used an old version of Perl
- Solaris - Just can't be bothered to port yet ;-)
The testing of multiple OSs has only been possible (so far) thanks to SourceForge.net's excellent Compile Farm.
If there are any other OSs you would like Bloat to run on, and have enough details on the programme used, or (this is the preferred option) are able to give me temporary shell access to add support for the OS's version of different programmes, I will probably incorporate support - just e-mail me with details!
How do I use bloat?
Simple. As long as you followed the instructions in INSTALL, simply type:
$ bloat archivename[s]
This will extract the archive[s] in the current directory (however most tarballs
- including bloat - extract into subdirectories). To get some basic help, type:
$ bloat --help
To get version information about bloat, type:
$ bloat --version
This will tell you the version, copyright information, and contact information.
The output of the archive programmes is supressed during normal operation; to see what you are missing, use the --verbose option, e.g.
$ bloat foobar.tar.gz --verbose
or
$ bloat --verbose foobar.tar.gz
Hey! I want man-style documentation!
So you prefer your information to be in man format? Not to worry. Bloat has POD (Plain Old Documentation) embedded in it. This means that you can easily output man-style pages various formats - even man. If you have another "pod2" script installed, you can also use that. To make a "real" man page, enter the directory bloat is in, and type:
$ pod2man bloat > bloat.man
This will create a manual file (bloat.man) which you can read using:
$ man ./bloat.man
If you don't want to use man, but you want to e.g. make HTML, just substitute
"pod2man" for "pod2html" and use your browser instead of man.
To see a list of "pod2" apps you have available, type:
$ pod2 <DO NOT PRESS ENTER>
and press TAB twice (assuming you're using bash).
This will output a list of pod2 converters you have available to you.
Help! I'm trying to bloat an RPM and it's not working!
This is most likely caused by you having PAX 2 installed; this version of PAX doesn't work with bloat. Both PAX 1 and PAX 3 work, so consider upgrading your version of PAX. bloat.sourceforge.net's requirements page used to link to a PAX 2 archive, and Linux Format magazine (UK) included PAX 2 on their April 2004 coverdiscs with bloat, so if you got it from either of these sources you have PAX 2.
How can I configure bloat the way I like it?
If you are comfortable with editing configuration files, you may want to go straight to the next paragraph; if not there is a script in the main bloat directory called "makeconfig.pl". Run this script and it will ask you some questions, then create a file called "bloatrc" in the directory you ran it from. Copy this file to /etc/ for a "global" (affects all users) configuration, or copy it to ~/.bloatrc for a "local" (affects you only) configuration. Local configurations are always given a higher priority than global configurations. If this fits your needs, skip the next paragraph.
"bloatrc.sample" contains a sample bloat configuration file - copy it to /etc/bloatrc or ~/.bloatrc and read it to see what options are available. Please note that there is a very slight possibility that having a config file may degrade bloat's speed, but there is no actual difference between the two on the Pentium Pro 200 I develop bloat on (sometimes it's faster without a config, sometimes it is faster with one).
Who wrote this stupid, badly designed, inefficient script?!?!?!
That'd be me - Dave Wickham. If you want to contact me, you can use the following:
- IRC - irc.freenode.net, #bloat
- Jabber - dave@theoretic.com
- ICQ - 116780903
- MSN Messenger - dave@allaboutgames.co.uk
- Yahoo! Messenger - dave2_desktop
- AIM - Dave2 Desktop
- e-mail - dave@allaboutgames.co.uk
- Web site - http://www.allaboutgames.co.uk/
OK, so the web site is a bit of a shameless plug ;-).
Oh yeah, the bloat homepage is http://bloat.sourceforge.net/ Thanks to SourceForge.net - they're grrrrrrrreat!
Last Edited: 2004-11-08