Bug#122451: compress -d => uncompress ?

[Paul Eggert]

Package: gzip
Version: 1.2.4-33

> From: address@hidden (Bdale Garbee)
> Date: Tue,  4 Dec 2001 10:07:34 -0700 (MST)
> 
> Because the 'compress' program is encumbered, it is not part of
> Debian.  The gunzip command can extract a 'compress' archive, but
> gzip cannot create one.  We therefore deliver an 'uncompress'
> symlink to gunzip as part of our gzip package, but no 'compress'
> symlink.  There is a non-free package called ncompress available for
> Debian systems that provides 'compress', but clearly it would be
> inappropriate for the free tar package to recommend or even suggest
> that package since it is not part of Debian.

This problem is not unique to 'tar', so it seems to me that its
solution should not be specific to 'tar'.

Can't you use something like the following script for 'compress' on
Debian?  That way, 'compress -d' will work as tar (and other programs)
expect, even if have only free software installed.

(This would seem to belong to gzip not tar, so I'll also submit this
as a Debian gzip bug, so that the Debian gzip maintainer sees this
suggestion too.  :-)


#! /bin/bash

# Emulate "compress -d" with gzip if possible; otherwise, fail.
# Written by Paul Eggert.

use_gzip=0
while getopts :cdfv option
do
  case $option in
  'd') use_gzip=1;;
  '?') use_gzip=0; break;;
  esac
done

case $use_gzip in
0) echo >$2 "$0: usage: $0 -d [-cfv] [file ...]"; exit 1;;
esac

exec gzip "$@"