Hint to all developer distributing TC tools and plugins
Moderators: white, Hacker, petermad, Stefan2
Hint to all developer distributing TC tools and plugins
Hi all,
due to the increasing of Totalcmd directory following to so many plugins and tools I would suggest to all the authors here to use ASPACK to compress executables and dlls (wlx,wfx and wcx too).
This ofter reduces of a lot the space used (especially for those programs and plugins made in Delphi) and in the evaluation version allows to compress any file in stardard way (no max compression allowed in evaluation) ..
You'll have to test it after packing operation took place, but ofter doesn't create problems
The only think you have to warn about is to not compress resources when compressing plugins. This in my experience sometime gives problems to TC.
due to the increasing of Totalcmd directory following to so many plugins and tools I would suggest to all the authors here to use ASPACK to compress executables and dlls (wlx,wfx and wcx too).
This ofter reduces of a lot the space used (especially for those programs and plugins made in Delphi) and in the evaluation version allows to compress any file in stardard way (no max compression allowed in evaluation) ..
You'll have to test it after packing operation took place, but ofter doesn't create problems
The only think you have to warn about is to not compress resources when compressing plugins. This in my experience sometime gives problems to TC.
always latest 32b TC on a WIN10 64b
- André Martin
- Senior Member
- Posts: 245
- Joined: 2003-02-05, 15:46 UTC
- Location: Dresden, Germany
I recommend UPX (http://upx.sourceforge.net) which is freeware/open source and seems to have a better compression ratio...
Btw. the POP3/SMTP EmailPlugin was compressed with UPX...
Btw. the POP3/SMTP EmailPlugin was compressed with UPX...
Browse the web with the HTTP SmartBrowserPlugin
Check your mails with the POP3/SMTP EmailPlugin!
Check your mails with the POP3/SMTP EmailPlugin!
-
- Junior Member
- Posts: 37
- Joined: 2003-02-08, 13:51 UTC
- Location: Moscow, Russia
2Nigurrath
good question. but AFAIK the only gain you may get with packers is hard disk space benefit, but not RAM memory benefit cauze when the tool / plugin runs - it runs in unpacked mode and takes RAM memory as unpacked one and even more as it neeeds to be unpacked.
So this is the inversed relation and your suggestion may be usefull only in case you have 4 giga hard disk. In this way you may pack tool/ plugins by youself.
Please correct me if im wrong.
good question. but AFAIK the only gain you may get with packers is hard disk space benefit, but not RAM memory benefit cauze when the tool / plugin runs - it runs in unpacked mode and takes RAM memory as unpacked one and even more as it neeeds to be unpacked.
So this is the inversed relation and your suggestion may be usefull only in case you have 4 giga hard disk. In this way you may pack tool/ plugins by youself.
Please correct me if im wrong.
# 85814 Personal licence
Please read this: http://www.jrsoftware.org/striprlc.php
Scroll down to the "Why not use an EXE compressor?" section.
Scroll down to the "Why not use an EXE compressor?" section.
Of all the planets I've been to, this one is my favorite.
lzvk25,
could somebody help us with the corresponding Multiarc configuration for UPX ?
You don't need Multiarc, just run UPX from the command line
and keep the smaller file.
what is "ASPACK" ? And if it is another packer, where can we find it ?
http://www.aspack.com/aspack.html
AFAIK TC is packed with ASPACK, even though UPX has the better ratio (by a few KB).
Aezay,
Don't forget about the benefits, too.
BTW: How did you get such colored controls in your applications (the Color Presets and the connection checker)?
TIA
Roman
could somebody help us with the corresponding Multiarc configuration for UPX ?
You don't need Multiarc, just run UPX from the command line
Code: Select all
upx --best --crp-ms=999999 --nrv2b -o result_2b.exe origfile.exe
upx --best --crp-ms=999999 --nrv2d -o result_2d.exe origfile.exe
what is "ASPACK" ? And if it is another packer, where can we find it ?
http://www.aspack.com/aspack.html
AFAIK TC is packed with ASPACK, even though UPX has the better ratio (by a few KB).
Aezay,
Don't forget about the benefits, too.
BTW: How did you get such colored controls in your applications (the Color Presets and the connection checker)?
TIA
Roman
Hacker> Another benefit is the decreased download size.
If I release a file, i will compress it with rar 1st. The difference between a rar packed aspack/upx packed exe; and a rar packed unpacked exe is small. u may have to read this twice to get it
Hacker> BTW: How did you get such colored controls in your applications (the Color Presets and the connection checker)?
If u mean the listview, I just do a custom draw. The others are just by changing the properties of the vcl controls.
If I release a file, i will compress it with rar 1st. The difference between a rar packed aspack/upx packed exe; and a rar packed unpacked exe is small. u may have to read this twice to get it
Hacker> BTW: How did you get such colored controls in your applications (the Color Presets and the connection checker)?
If u mean the listview, I just do a custom draw. The others are just by changing the properties of the vcl controls.
Of all the planets I've been to, this one is my favorite.
-
- Junior Member
- Posts: 37
- Joined: 2003-02-08, 13:51 UTC
- Location: Moscow, Russia
2lzvk25
Well, 'packer' is not 'archiver'. it does not compress file to store it in diminished size as archiver does. Packer simply compresses executable files with all internal file resources to make the file less in size.
In fact A LOT OF sowtware nowadays is packed with packers but this is done mainly to protect programs against reversed engineering aka 'cracking'.
Well, 'packer' is not 'archiver'. it does not compress file to store it in diminished size as archiver does. Packer simply compresses executable files with all internal file resources to make the file less in size.
In fact A LOT OF sowtware nowadays is packed with packers but this is done mainly to protect programs against reversed engineering aka 'cracking'.
# 85814 Personal licence
-
- Junior Member
- Posts: 37
- Joined: 2003-02-08, 13:51 UTC
- Location: Moscow, Russia
Just some thoughts:
- Packing exe's only helps if you have a small one (phun intended),
In the DOS days with 20 MB harddisks it was pretty common, but today, with using 10+ GIG harddisks, what's a few 100 KB going to matter ? Cleaning out your 60 MB temporary internet files will save you more space!
- Packing is not 100% reliable. Especially with overlapping code and packing of resources.
- When using packing with BETA plugins: I'll always be wondering if the bug is from the code or from the packing...
- Packing can protect your code from lame hex editing, but will not protect it from die hard crackers (example: TCMD is packed with ASpack but is still being cracked)
- UPX has my preference above ASPack, because it's open source, free and you can decompress your execuables with it (upx -d)
- A nice GUI for UPX is upx graphical:http://www.paehl.de/home.htm
- Packing exe's only helps if you have a small one (phun intended),
In the DOS days with 20 MB harddisks it was pretty common, but today, with using 10+ GIG harddisks, what's a few 100 KB going to matter ? Cleaning out your 60 MB temporary internet files will save you more space!
- Packing is not 100% reliable. Especially with overlapping code and packing of resources.
- When using packing with BETA plugins: I'll always be wondering if the bug is from the code or from the packing...
- Packing can protect your code from lame hex editing, but will not protect it from die hard crackers (example: TCMD is packed with ASpack but is still being cracked)
- UPX has my preference above ASPack, because it's open source, free and you can decompress your execuables with it (upx -d)
- A nice GUI for UPX is upx graphical:http://www.paehl.de/home.htm
Last edited by Maxwish on 2003-02-19, 12:59 UTC, edited 1 time in total.
multiarc UPX configuration (version 1.90beta)
Hi all,
here's the configuration for MultiArc for this packer..very nice!
One only problem: I'm still not able to decompress packers, could someone fix this? Credits will go to all who'll contributes of course and we'll can send it to MultiArc author after it's stable.
here's the configuration for MultiArc for this packer..very nice!
One only problem: I'm still not able to decompress packers, could someone fix this? Credits will go to all who'll contributes of course and we'll can send it to MultiArc author after it's stable.
Code: Select all
; -----------------------------------------------------------------------
; WC MultiArc config addon for UPX 190beta compressed files
; Unpacker: upx v1.9
; Author: adapted for MultiArc by Frumento Enrico
; Website: http://web.cefriel.it/~frumento
; -----------------------------------------------------------------------
;
[UPX Compress 190beta]
TypeName=UPX
ID=55 50 58
IDPos=992, 512, 552
Extension=EXE,DLL
Archiver=D:\wincmd\PK-plugin\upx.exe
Start="--------------------"
End="^WARNING: this is an unstable beta version"
Format0="zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz -> pppppppppppppppppppppp nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn"
Extract="%P -d %FQ -o%AQAW"
;Extract="%P -d %AQAW"
List="%P -q -l --no-color %AQA"
Test="%P -t -q --no-color %FQ"
Add="%P -9 -q --compress-icons=0 --all-methods %FQ -o%AQ"
IgnoreErrors=0
Debug=0
UnixPath=0
SkipDirsInFileList=1
SkipEmptyNames=1
BatchUnpack=0
SearchForUglyDirs=0
AskMode=0
SkipLIST=0
; -----------------------------------------------------------------------
always latest 32b TC on a WIN10 64b
- fabiochelly
- Power Member
- Posts: 603
- Joined: 2003-02-05, 12:03 UTC
- Location: Rambouillet, France
I never had any problem with packed software.
In fact, I noticed that aspacked programs load faster because unpacking in memory is faster than disk reading.
In fact, I noticed that aspacked programs load faster because unpacking in memory is faster than disk reading.
Fabio Chelly.
#60241
Lorsqu'on s'occupe d'informatique il faut faire comme les canards...
Paraître calme en surface et pédaler comme un forcené par en dessous
#60241
Lorsqu'on s'occupe d'informatique il faut faire comme les canards...
Paraître calme en surface et pédaler comme un forcené par en dessous