Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 10:59:47 -0500 (CDT) From: "Doug Poland" <doug@polands.org> To: <nkinkade@sub21-156.member.dsl-only.net> Cc: <questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: handling .exe self-extracting archives (Was: vmware) Message-ID: <58450.63.104.35.130.1034265587.squirrel@babylon.polands.org> In-Reply-To: <20021010155214.GB3723@sub21-156.member.dsl-only.net> References: <3DA4AC33.9010207@myrealbox.com> <3DA4B7F4.4010305@hq.dyns.cx> <20021010044807.GB2247@sub21-156.member.dsl-only.net> <28325.63.104.35.130.1034262492.squirrel@babylon.polands.org> <20021010155214.GB3723@sub21-156.member.dsl-only.net>
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Nathan Kinkade said:
> On Thu, Oct 10, 2002 at 10:08:12AM -0500, Doug Poland wrote:
>> Nathan Kinkade said:
>>>
>>> By the way, does anyone know of a reasonable way to get at the
>>> contents of *.exe self-extracting archives. This problem was
>>> what led me to fiddle with vmware in the first place.
>>>
>>
>> unzip from ports works well. There's also a pkzip port that
>> will probably do the job
>>
>
> Doug,
> I tried unzip, but it didn't work. Kept compaining that it wasn't
> a valid archive. I know it was a good archive because I later
> extracted the very same one with vmware2/Win2k. I found all
> sorts of info about creating SFX archives and about `unzipsfx',
> but nothing that worked for a regular .exe self-extracting
> archive. I've had people tell me that unzip may work sometimes,
> but under what conditions I'm not sure.
>
> I saw the pkzip port, but I couldn't find info anywhere telling me
> that it would extract .exe formated self-extracting archives.
> Have you used either of these tools recently to extract these
> types of pernicious archives?
>
Nathan,
Just tested unzip on a particular .exe archive and it works. I
think the problem may be with .exe archives that are not following
the .zip specification. For example, I think most of Microsoft's
installs (self-extracting .exe files) are not .zip compliant. I was
testing various Microsoft downloads I have and am seeing the message
host% unzip -l vs6sp5.exe
Archive: vs6sp5.exe
End-of-central-directory signature not found. Either this file is
not a zipfile, or it constitutes one disk of a multi-part archive.
In the latter case the central directory and zipfile comment will be
found on the last disk(s) of this archive.
unzip: cannot find zipfile directory in one of vs6sp5.exe or
vs6sp5.exe.zip, and cannot find vs6sp5.exe.ZIP, period.
So, in the case of these pernicious archives, unzip clearly won't
work. I have access to Microsoft machines so I never had to pursue
a FreeBSD solution. Sorry.
--
Regards,
Doug
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