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A corrupt .zip file at Garbo

Something is wrong with the .zip package I downloaded from Garbo archives. I get a CRC error, a "requires PKUNZIP 3.0 or higher version", a "zipfile is part of multi-disk archive" message, or whatever when I try to process the .zip package.

First please carefully reread the item "I downloaded a file. It has a .zip (or a similar) extension. Now what?  (Uncompressing archived files)". In practically every case the reports of allegedly corrupt packages are caused by two reasons:

In using ftp the file transfers there are (usually) two phases:
  1. From the FTP site to your host.
  2. From your host to your PC.
Failure the transfer in the binary mode can cause quite unexpected error messages like for example "requires PKUNZIP 2.8 or higher version".

It is fairly common of the users to claim that they have transferred in the binary mode, but in fact done so for only one of the stages! Usually you transfer the zipped file in two stages. First from the FTP site to your own (most often Unix) host. That transfer must be made in the binary mode. Second from your host to your PC. Also this second transfer must be made in the binary mode. In particular, if you are using the kermit protocol for the transfer, you must set the transfer to binary mode at both ends of the transfer.

Failing to set the transfer to the binary mode, and using the old versions of PKUNZIP has caused innumerable false alarms from the downloaders to the FTP archive site maintainers. It is not impossible, but it is extremely rare that a package is actually corrupt on the FTP archive site. If you are absolutely sure, and have checked and even then double checked, then please contact us about it.

In some very unusual cases setting the transfer to binary is not enough because the byte order of your host and the FTP site might not be the same. That is why most ftp programs have a mode called TENEX, which tells each end to use binary mode but to sort out the byte ordering differences between the two machines. If your ftp program does not have the TENEX command you can make it do the same thing by issuing these two commands:
  ftp> binary
  ftp> quote "TYPE L 8"
The double quotes are required.

Some users with .zip problems want to know where to get PKZIPFIX. It is within the PKZIP distribution package (pk250dos.exe), but using it will not rectify any of the errors described in the above.

If you are using a 386 or 486 computer, PKUNZIP may be having some problems with your machine's BIOS. You can force PKUNZIP to NOT use 386 instructions by doing SET PKNO386=ON at the DOS command prompt to put the variable PKNO386 into your DOS environment.

Furthermore, you can put a PKZIP.CFG file into the same directory where your PKZIP.EXE program is. Below is an example of "cautious" defaults (the spaces in front are just for FAQ readability).
   EMS=disable
   XMS=disable
   DPMI=disable
   NET=disable
   COMPRESS=maximum

The World Wide Web has added the possibility of getting the files from the archive sites also with the WWW browser programs. It appears that (at least with some of the browser versions) in a long session the browser gets confused and cannot get the files in the proper format. If you are experiencing such problems, exit your browser, reload it, and then try to get the target file anew.

Hi there. I downloaded your zipped the TSBAT.ZIP batch file tricks collection from the garbo.uwasa.fi ftp server. When I look at the 1BATFAQ.TXT file (one of the files in the package) there seems to be a number of questions in the index section of the file whose answers are not in the file. The index lists around 156 questions, but the file only contains answers up through 37 or so. I have carefully gotten the file in the binary mode, but to no avail. Am I missing something? Thanks in advance.

As explained previously, it is very rare that the original package at the archives is faulty. In this particular case I can assure you that the file at this end is ok, since it is my most downloaded package, and there certainly would have been a lot of reports if the package were corrupt. You can verify a successful downloading by

PKUNZIP -T TSBAT.ZIP

If you get "OK" all through, then the problem lies elsewhere than in your downloading procedure. Please note that the 1BATFAQ.TXT file is a rather large text file. Not all programs can read a file that is larger than a certain limit (often 64Kb). The easiest way to check if the problem lies with the program you are using to browse the material is trying out

TYPE 1BATFAQ.TXT

If that displays the entire 1BATFAQ.TXT file then it is obvious that the problem lies with the program you used for the reading.

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