UNSHAR(1)						      General Commands Manual							 UNSHAR(1)

NAME

       unshar - unpack a shar file

SYNOPSIS

       unshar [ options ] [ file ... ]

DESCRIPTION

       Unshar  scans mail messages looking for the start of a shell archive.  It then passes the archive through a copy of the shell to unpack it.
       It will accept multiple files.  If no files are given, standard input is used.

OPTIONS

       Options have a one letter version starting with - or a long version starting with --.  The exception is --help and  --version,  which  does
       not have a short version.

       --version
	      Print the version number of the program on standard output, then immediately exits.

       --help Print a help summary on standard output, then immediately exits.

       -d DIRECTORY  --directory=DIRECTORY
	      Change directory to DIRECTORY before unpacking any files.

       -c  --overwrite
	      Passed  as  an option to the shar file.  Many shell archive scripts (including those produced by `shar' 3.40 and newer) accepts a -c
	      argument to indicate that existing files should be overwritten.

       -e  --exit-0
	      This option exists mainly for people who collect many shell archives into a single mail folder.  With this option, `unshar' isolates
	      each different shell archive from the others which have been put in the same file, unpacking each in turn, from the beginning of the
	      file towards its end.  Its proper operation relies on the fact that many shar files are terminated by a `exit 0' at the beginning of
	      a line.

	      Option -e is internally equivalent to -E "exit 0".

       -E STRING  --split-at=STRING
	      This option works like -e, but it allows you to specify the string that separates archives if `exit 0' isn't appropriate.

	      For  example,  noticing  that  most `.signatures' have a `--' on a line right before them, one can sometimes use `--split-at=--' for
	      splitting shell archives which lack the `exit 0' line at end.  The signature will then be skipped altogether with the headers of the
	      following message.

       -f  --force
	      The same as -c.

SEE ALSO

       shar(1)

DIAGNOSTICS

       Any message from the shell may be displayed.

AUTHORS

       The  shar  and  unshar  programs is the collective work of many authors.  Many people contributed by reporting problems, suggesting various
       improvements or submitting actual code.	A list of these people is in the THANKS file in the sharutils distribution.

								September 10, 1995							 UNSHAR(1)