[lug] [OT] archive formats

[Calvin Dodge]

On 3/28/06, Daniel Webb <lists at danielwebb.us> wrote:
>
> Is there such a thing as an archive format that is recognized without
> additional software on most installs of Windows, Linux, and Mac?

Well, IIRC zip handling wasn't built into Windows until XP. I suppose
XP has been out long enough to count as "most installs".

 If the desire is "cross-platform without additional software", I
think zip comes closest to satisfying that desire.  I don't think it
handles *nix features like symbolic links, but those aren't
cross-platform filesystem features.

I'm relatively ignorant of Mac software availability, but suspect that
the OS/X shell has zip/unzip available, even if the GUI doesn't.

Calvin