Opening the Database Files

OPENING THE DATABASE FILES

Some of the files are packaged as tar files, and the larger files containing the databases and images have been compressed with gzip. Thus, gzip is required to uncompress the files, and a tar utility is required to open the tar files. The necessary utilities are available online from the sites listed below:

Compressed Gzip Files

Files compressed with gzip (those with a .gz extension) can be uncompressed with gzip. The gzip utility converts the compressed file name.gz to its uncompressed equivalent name. The compressed file is replaced by the uncompressed file. This utility is free of charge over the Internet at:

http://w3.teaser.fr/*jlgailly/gzip

Tar Files (UNIX Tape Archive)

To extract the contents of a tar file, first uncompress it with gzip if the extension is .tar.gz. Once the tar extension is exposed, extract the contents with a tar utility. This utility is included in most UNIX systems. Tar utilities for PC and Macintosh can be obtained free of charge via the Internet from Internet Literacy's Common Internet File Formats Web Page:

http://www.matisse.net/files/formats.htm

WinZip

This commercial package runs on PCs and can deal with both gzip and tar files. An evaluation copy of WinZip for Windows 3.1, 95 and NT can be downloaded from:

http://www.winzip.com/winzip