
=head1 NAME

IO::Compress::Base::FAQ -- Frequently Asked Questions about IO::Compress::Base

=head1 DESCRIPTION

Common questions answered.




=head2 Compatibility with Unix compress/uncompress.


This module is not compatible with Unix C<compress>.


If you have the C<uncompress> program available, you can use this to read
compressed files

    open F, "uncompress -c $filename |";
    while (<F>)
    {
        ...

Alternatively, if you have the C<gunzip> program available, you can use
this to read compressed files

    open F, "gunzip -c $filename |";
    while (<F>)
    {
        ...

and this to write compress files, if you have the C<compress> program
available

    open F, "| compress -c $filename ";
    print F "data";
    ...
    close F ;

=head2 Accessing .tar.Z files


See previous FAQ item.

If the C<Archive::Tar> module is installed and either the C<uncompress> or
C<gunzip> programs are available, you can use one of these workarounds to
read C<.tar.Z> files.


Firstly with C<uncompress>

    use strict;
    use warnings;
    use Archive::Tar;

    open F, "uncompress -c $filename |";
    my $tar = Archive::Tar->new(*F);
    ...

and this with C<gunzip>

    use strict;
    use warnings;
    use Archive::Tar;

    open F, "gunzip -c $filename |";
    my $tar = Archive::Tar->new(*F);
    ...

Similarly, if the C<compress> program is available, you can use this to
write a C<.tar.Z> file

    use strict;
    use warnings;
    use Archive::Tar;
    use IO::File;

    my $fh = new IO::File "| compress -c >$filename";
    my $tar = Archive::Tar->new();
    ...
    $tar->write($fh);
    $fh->close ;


=head2 Accessing Zip Files


This module does not support reading/writing zip files.

Limited support for reading/writing zip files is included with the
C<IO::Compress::Zip> and C<IO::Uncompress::Unzip> modules.


A full interface for manipulating zip files is available with the
C<Archive::Zip> module. You can find it on CPAN at 

    http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Archive/Archive-Zip-*.tar.gz    























=head1 SEE ALSO

L<Compress::Zlib>, L<IO::Compress::Gzip>, L<IO::Uncompress::Gunzip>, L<IO::Compress::Deflate>, L<IO::Uncompress::Inflate>, L<IO::Compress::RawDeflate>, L<IO::Uncompress::RawInflate>, L<IO::Compress::Bzip2>, L<IO::Uncompress::Bunzip2>, L<IO::Compress::Lzop>, L<IO::Uncompress::UnLzop>, L<IO::Compress::Lzf>, L<IO::Uncompress::UnLzf>, L<IO::Uncompress::AnyInflate>, L<IO::Uncompress::AnyUncompress>

L<Compress::Zlib::FAQ|Compress::Zlib::FAQ>

L<File::GlobMapper|File::GlobMapper>, L<Archive::Zip|Archive::Zip>,
L<Archive::Tar|Archive::Tar>,
L<IO::Zlib|IO::Zlib>





=head1 AUTHOR

This module was written by Paul Marquess, F<pmqs@cpan.org>. 



=head1 MODIFICATION HISTORY

See the Changes file.

=head1 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright (c) 2005-2007 Paul Marquess. All rights reserved.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

