Re: Strange AUX File types

[dempson@swell.actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

In article <2h9690$l45@condor.ic.net> platkus@iunet (Shawn Platkus) writes:
> 
> I've been noticing something that I think is strange with the AUX
> type of some of my files.  Mostly, I notice it with DAs INITS and
> ShrinkIT archives. 
> 
> It seems that there is an extra bit that is getting set somehow.  I
> noticed this because it screwed up some of my icons (i.e. icons
> didn't macth files that I knew they should match). 
> 
> What it is is that the AUX type looks like 0000xx1x
>                                                  ^----This byte is $01, why?

Wrong bit.  I think you mean 0000x1xx ($0100, for example).

For some unknown reason, the default auxiliary type used by the ORCA
linker is $0100.  If you don't specify an explicit auxiliary type, all
applications, EXE files, INITs, NDAs, CDAs, etc. will initially have
an auxiliary type of $0100.  I have no idea what this signifies, but
it has been the case since APW and ORCA/M version 1.0.

For desktop applications, the auxtype is usually changed to $DCxx, with
the bits in the low-order byte specifying capabilities of the
application (see FTN.B3.XXXX for details).

> I notice that a lot of the files that I download off the net after I use
> GSCII to convert them to a shrinkit archive have a file type of
> $E0 / 8102  instead of $E0 / 8002.   I've looked in the filetype notes, but
> haven't found any mention of why this bit would be set.

This is a bug in GSCII+ (and SSCII, the shell version of the same
program).  When creating an archive, these programs add $0100 to the
auxiliary type if it is $8000 or higher, unless the low-order byte is
zero.

My DESCII program (shell-based BinSCII extractor) recognises this in
the case of a ShrinkIt archive and corrects the auxiliary type.

Other than DESCII, it doesn't matter which program you use to extract
the file, you will still get the bogus auxiliary type (since it has
been written into the header of each BinSCII segment).

> I'm using GSCII 2.3.1.  Is this the latest version?

Yes.
-- 
David Empson                                                               
dempson@swell.actrix.gen.nz                                                
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand