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2.1.4 in-out options

specifying file selection and output modes.

output-prefix option (-o).

This is the “print output to file prefix.nn” option. This option takes an argument string PREFIX. Save the archive to files prefix.01 thru prefix.nn instead of sending all output to standard out. Must be specified when the --whole-size-limit or --split-size-limit options are specified.

When prefix contains a ‘%’ character, prefix is then interpreted as a sprintf format, which should be able to display a single decimal number. When prefix does not contain such a ‘%’ character, the string ‘.%02d’ is internally appended.

whole-size-limit option (-l).

This is the “split archive, not files, to size” option. This option takes an argument number SIZE.

This option has some usage constraints. It:

Limit the output file size to size bytes, but don't split input files. If size is less than 1024, then it will be multiplied by 1024. The value may also be specified with a k, K, m or M suffix. The number is then multiplied by 1000, 1024, 1000000, or 1048576, respectively. 4M (4194304) is the maximum allowed.

Unlike the split-size-limit option, this allows the recipient of the shell archives to be unpacked in any order.

split-size-limit option (-L).

This is the “split archive or files to size” option. This option takes an argument number SIZE.

This option has some usage constraints. It:

Limit output file size to size bytes, splitting files if necessary. The allowed values are specified as with the --whole-size-limit option.

The archive parts created with this option must be unpacked in the correct order. If the recipient of the shell archives wants to put all of them in a single email folder (file), they will have to be saved in the correct order for unshar to unpack them all at once (using one of the split archive options). See unshar Invocation.

input-file-list option (-I).

This is the “read file list from a file” option. This option takes an argument string FILE. This option causes file to be reopened as standard input. If no files are found on the input line, then standard input is read for input file names. Use of this option will prohibit input files from being listed on the command line.

Input must be in a form similar to that generated by find, one filename per line. This switch is especially useful when the command line will not hold the list of files to be archived.

If the --intermix-type option is specified on the command line, then the compression options may be included in the standard input on lines by themselves and no file name may begin with a hyphen.

For example:

    { echo --compact xz
       find . -type f -print | sort
    } | shar -S -p -L50K -o /somewhere/big
stdin-file-list option (-S).

This is the “read file list from standard input” option. This option is actually a no-op. It is a wrapper for --input-file-list=-.

NOTE: THIS OPTION IS DEPRECATED