Better archiver that LZX with small unarc tool

[nicholas]

I'm searching for a better archiver than LZX with a small unarchive tool compatible with 68000 w/o FPU. I've looked into many options but they either don't compress as well as LZX or they compress better but their unarchive tool are huge and/or need huge library file(s) that the better compression doesn't compensate enough for (when it's data and compression tool that need to fit onto a single floppy).

Any suggestions or is LZX the best option?

http://aminet.net/package/util/arc/xz-utils

[nicholas]

Main program with library is like 300K... not an option.

Then your only option is unrar.

http://aminet.net/package/util/arc/unrar-68k-amigaos-bin

[nicholas]

Then I guess you are stuck with LZX.

[nicholas]

Try crunching all everything in C: L: Libs: and Devs: with this.

http://aminet.net/package/util/shell/lzma-exe

[nicholas]

But, what exactly is the data you're storing? Archivers are general purpose and may net be optimal for the things you're compressing.

Indeed.  It would be useful to know exactly what he's trying to compress as one size does not fit all when it comes to compression.

[nicholas]

Texts, pictures, executables etc... a general mix of things that LZX seem to to a good jobb of compress (about 60% i think). As said, I'm pleased with LZX's compression, I know LZX2 (.cab) compress it better by about 50KB but with extractiontool 4 times that it's not an option unless someone have 68000 compatible, library free, LZX2 extractor that takes less than 63KB.

If you are only compresing for archiving/backup purposes why do you need to fit the unarchiver on the same floppy? You could create a single boot floppy with all the xad/xfd/xpk libs/decrunchers you need and use it to boot up and decrunch the stuff that is on your other disks.

Have you tried the '-3' argument with LHA btw?  Might shave of a few bytes here and there and be comparable to LZX.

Save your bitmaps as PNG, your photos as JPEG, your text and exes/libs/devices/handlers etc with XZ/NUKE/RAR/EPU (or whichever) and you should be able to fit a lot more on a floppy than just plain old LZX for everything.

[nicholas]

It is not a question of backup purpose (but I don't want to alter the files). The project of mine require it to fit on a single self sustaining DD floppy.

Can you give us a bit more detail to work with then we might be able to provide better solutions for you.  i.e. What exactly is your project, what are it's goals/what are you trying to achieve as an end result?

So the question is simply if LZX is the best option (compression rate, extract tool size, CPU/NoLIB requirements)... looking at this thread I think I have that question answered but wanted to ask it to be sure.

It's quite possible, but we can't be sure without more information from you.

[nicholas]

I need an archiver optimized for compression rate (speed is not a priority) and need to work with mixed file types. The extraction tool has to work with just a 68000 w/o FPU and require no external libraries.

There is more data than actually fits unless the compression rate can somehow be increased. The data archived need to fit onto a single DD floppy together with the extraction tool hence the extraction tools size is a factor that has to be calculated with.

More info shouldn't really be necessary.

Well obviously it is neccessary for me to know more so I can understand better or I wouldn't be asking would I?

Anyway, one thing you can try to increase the compression ratio is to first create a completely uncompressed archive with all the files you want inside it, then compress this single file at the highest compression rate with LZX.

It'll probably save you quite a few kilobytes. It's the same concept behind *.tar.gz on UNIX systems rather than gzipping each individual file.

[nicholas]

Thanks for the suggestion, however since LZX support merging files it only saved me 1.2KB out of 1.7MB compared to letting LZX handle it all in one go, not worth it.

Go with what PanterHZ said, he's been perfecting this art for years with his 911 disks.  He's probably the best expert on using LZX on this forum.