Archive Info

The Archive Info command in the "File" menu provides a way to view information about the currently open disk image or file archive.  The set of information shown depends on the kind of file currently open.

NuFX (ShrinkIt) Archive

Filename: the name of the file that is currently open.

Format: archives can be plain ShrinkIt archives (NuFX), wrapped in a Binary II wrapper (usually named .BXY), GS/ShrinkIt self-extracting (.SEA), or GS/ShrinkIt self-extracting in a Binary II wrapper (.BSE).

Records: the number of records in the archive.  Each file, whether forked or not, occupies one record.

Master Version: the master version number of the NuFX archive.  This can be useful when trying to determine if an archive is from a really old version of ShrinkIt.  The most current version is 2.

Created: the date and time when the archive was created, if available.

Modified: the date and time when the archive was last modified.

Junk Skipped: the number of bytes skipped over when scanning for the start of the archive.  NufxLib skips over MacBinary headers and the leftover HTTP junk that seems to show up in files on some FTP sites.  Most other NuFX applications, e.g. ShrinkIt, do not, so this can explain why an archive won't open on an Apple II.

Disk Image

Filename: the name of the file that is currently open.

Outer Format: the name of an external "wrapper", if any; usually gzip (.gz) or zip (.zip).

File Format: the overall format of the disk image file.  Common formats are 2IMG (.2MG) and unadorned (.PO, .DO, .DSK).

Physical Format: internal layout of the file.  Most files are "cooked" sectors, but some are in a nibble format.

The Sub-Volume box shows the name of the volume that the rest of the information applies to.  Most disks don't have sub-volumes, and the box will be greyed out.  UNIDOS 800K disks, Macintosh-style partitions, CFFA cards, and ProDOS disks with embedded DOS images will have entries here.  Selecting a different entry will change the information below.

Sector Ordering: sector layout within the image.  Most disks use DOS (.DO) or ProDOS (.PO) order.

Filesystem Format: the type of filesystem on the disk, e.g. DOS 3.3, ProDOS, Pascal.  For "hybrid" disks, such as DOS3.3/ProDOS mixed on a 5.25" disk, only the dominant filesystem will be shown.

Files+Directories: the number of files and directories on the disk.  For ProDOS the count includes the volume directory.

Storage Capacity: how many blocks or sectors the disk can hold.  In some cases, such as an 800K disk image copied to a 32MB CFFA partition, a second number will be shown indicating the maximum size of the disk image area.

Free Space: how much free space is on the disk.  For formats like CFFA, which just hold other disk images, this is meaningless.

Writable Format: says whether or not CiderPress is capable of adding and deleting files on disks with this format.  Currently this is "yes" for DOS 3.3, ProDOS, and UCSD Pascal.

Damaged: this indicates whether or not CiderPress believes the disk is damaged.  If it does, the disk will be marked read-only, and attempts to add or delete files will be blocked.

Notes: if CiderPress detects damage or other anomalies when scanning the disk, they wll be noted here.

More information about the different disk formats can be found here.

Binary II Archive

Filename: the name of the file that is currently open.

Records: the number of entries in the Binary II archive.

AppleLink Compression Utility Archive

Filename: the name of the file that is currently open.

Records: the number of entries in the ACU archive.

AppleSingle file

Filename: the name of the file that is currently open.

Info: a few facts about the file.