Working with ZIP files

Using Tcl I want to be able to read from and write to zip files which may
contain encrypted data (zip 2.0 compatible only).

I've looked at vsf::zip which looks very good, but seems to be read-only and
doesn't pass much info on the files contained inside the zip file back so it
can be used within Tcl code.  Also, vsf::zip doesn't appear to cater for
where files in the zip file are encrypted.

Is there any work going on to make vsf::zip handle writing to zip files and
handle encryption?  Are there other packages which I should be looking at to
get the features I want?

I'm trying to get my head around how the vsf::zip code works and what would
need to be changed to include encryption, etc..

My lack of experience with C is not helping the process of doing this, but I
can read it <slowly>.

Any advice on ways to make the package include some or all of my
requirements would be appreciated.  I'm an experienced programmer, but am
still fairly new to Tcl .

My other thought was to somehow use the DLLs from the Info-Zip project to
provide the required functionality. In the past I've used these DLLs from
Visual Basic code, so it's not totally new territory to me. Am I correct my
understanding that a module written in C is needed to handle communication
between Tcl code and the DLLs?  If so, is any documentation available to
help me begin writing such a module?

At present I'm working on Win 98 & XP, but also have access to Linux and
would like my project to work there as well with as little change as
possible.

TIA

Rob.

"Rob Strover" <dislexic_wobmat@NOSPAMyahoo.com.invalid> wrote
>
> Using Tcl I want to be able to read from and write to zip files
which
> may contain encrypted data (zip 2.0 compatible only).
> ...
> Is there any work going on to make vsf::zip handle writing to zip
files
> and handle encryption?  Are there other packages which I should be
> looking at to get the features I want?
> ...
> My other thought was to somehow use the DLLs from the Info-Zip
> project to provide the required functionality.

Tcl is a great glue language.  Before delving into DLLs, see if you
can just call an executable to get the job done.  Calling [exec] is
really easy.

Bob
--
Bob Techentin                   techentin.robert@NOSPAMmayo.edu
Mayo Foundation                                 (507) 538-5495
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Rochester MN, 55901  USA            http://www.mayo.edu/sppdg/