ipack(1)						      General Commands Manual							  ipack(1)

NAME

       ipack - Manipulate Flex files containing Shapes

SYNOPSIS

       ipack -c SCRIPT

       ipack -x SCRIPT

       ipack -u SCRIPT

DESCRIPTION

       Flex  files  containing	Shapes	are  used for the storage visual elements by the games Exult supports. While expack(1) can operate on such
       files, using ipack is more comfortable. It can extract images from the Flex file directly into PNG-format, and create or update Flex  files
       from a list of PNG files.

       The first parameter determines the mode of operation:

       -c Creation
	      New Flex and palette files are created according to the instructions contained in the SCRIPT file.

       -u Update
	      Works like Creation, but updates an existing Flex file.

       -x Extraction
	      The contents of the Flex file described in the SCRIPT file are extracted as PNG is dissected into its contents, as described in this
	      script file.

   Script File Format
       Empty lines, and lines starting with a pound sign (#) are ignored.

       The names of the associated Flex archive and palette files are given in lines containing optional whitespace, one of the tokens archive	or
       palette, whitespace, and the filename.

       Other  lines  define  one shape each, and must begin with an image slot number, followed by a slash (/), the number of frames, a colon (:),
       and finally the PNG file specification.	The numbers may be given either in decimal, in octal prefixed with 0; or in  hexadecimal  prefixed
       with  0x.   The	file  specification consists of the filename PREFIX, optionally followed by a number and direction in brackets, optionally
       followed by whitespace and the word flat.

       Per default, each shape corresponds to a number of PNG files (one for each frame) named PREFIXnn.png with nn replaced by the frame  number.
       If  the optional bracket expression is used in the specification the Shape corresponds to a single PNG file instead. This file contains all
       frames, each of which is 8 by 8 pixels in size, arranged next to each other in a rectangular grid. The number  in  the  bracket	expression
       gives the size of this grid in the direction indicated. The direction can be either down or across.

EXAMPLES

       ipack -c island.scr
	      Creates a Flex file and a palette file as specified by island.scr.

       ipack -x island.scr
	      Extracts all components described in island.scr from the Flex file given therein.

   Example script
       # script file for island.flx
       archive island.flx
       # put the palette into this file
       palette island.pal
       # the zeroth image has 32 frames in the files
       # zero00.png to zero31.png
       0/32:zero
       # image 5 consists of 22 frames stored in file
       # five.png in a grid 5 frames across (which means
       # 5 rows of which the last holds only 2 frames)
       5/22:five(5 across) flat
       # image 4 consists of 12 frames stored in file
       # four.png in a 3 by 4 grid
       4/12:four(4 down) flat
       # images 1 to 3 are unspecified

BUGS

       Tiled Shapes are currently extracted into multiple PNG files, not a single file as expected during Create/Update.

AUTHOR

       This manpage was written by Robert Bihlmeyer. It may be freely redistributed and modified under the terms of the GNU General Public License
       version 2 or higher.

SEE ALSO

       expack(1), exult(6)

Exult								    2002-03-24								  ipack(1)