UnixCompress FoxPro Reference Documentation

UnixCompress

Current Version: 11.6.0

Chilkat.UnixCompress

Compress, uncompress, and unpack legacy UNIX .Z files.

Chilkat.UnixCompress provides UNIX compress and uncompress functionality for legacy .Z files. It supports file-based, memory-based, and string-based workflows, uses LZW compression, can unpack .tar.Z archives, and includes abort and progress-related support for longer-running operations.

Compress to .Z

Compress files, memory data, or strings into UNIX .Z format using LZW compression.

Uncompress .Z data

Expand UNIX-compressed data back to files, memory, byte arrays, or text depending on the application workflow.

File workflows

Compress and uncompress directly between input and output files when working with existing filesystem data.

Memory workflows

Work with compressed or uncompressed byte data in memory when temporary files are not desired.

String workflows

Compress and uncompress text using an explicit character set so string data round-trips correctly.

Unpack tar.Z archives

Use UnTarZ to decompress and extract legacy .tar.Z archives in a single workflow.

Common pattern: Use UnixCompress when the data is in classic UNIX .Z format or when a .tar.Z archive must be unpacked. Use Chilkat.Gzip for .gz and .tar.gz files, Chilkat.Bz2 for .bz2 files, and Chilkat.Compression for raw compression algorithms and general-purpose compression workflows.

Object Creation

loUnixCompress = CreateObject('Chilkat.UnixCompress')

Visual FoxPro is a 32-bit application and therefore uses the 32-bit Chilkat ActiveX. To bind to a specific major version of Chilkat, append the major version number to the ProgID, such as CreateObject('Chilkat.UnixCompress.11') for Chilkat v11.*.*.

Properties

AbortCurrent
AbortCurrent As Number
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

When set to 1, causes the currently running method to abort. Methods that always finish quickly (i.e.have no length file operations or network communications) are not affected. If no method is running, then this property is automatically reset to 0 when the next method is called. When the abort occurs, this property is reset to 0. Both synchronous and asynchronous method calls can be aborted. (A synchronous method call could be aborted by setting this property from a separate thread.)

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DebugLogFilePath
DebugLogFilePath As String

If set to a file path, this property logs the LastErrorText of each Chilkat method or property call to the specified file. This logging helps identify the context and history of Chilkat calls leading up to any crash or hang, aiding in debugging.

Enabling the VerboseLogging property provides more detailed information. This property is mainly used for debugging rare instances where a Chilkat method call causes a hang or crash, which should generally not happen.

Possible causes of hangs include:

  • A timeout property set to 0, indicating an infinite timeout.
  • A hang occurring within an event callback in the application code.
  • An internal bug in the Chilkat code causing the hang.

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HeartbeatMs
HeartbeatMs As Number

The interval in milliseconds between each AbortCheck event callback, which enables an application to abort certain method calls before they complete. By default, HeartbeatMs is set to 0, meaning no AbortCheck event callbacks will trigger.

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LastBinaryResult
LastBinaryResult As Variant (read-only)

This property is mainly used in SQL Server stored procedures to retrieve binary data from the last method call that returned binary data. It is only accessible if Chilkat.Global.KeepBinaryResult is set to 1. This feature allows for the retrieval of large varbinary results in an SQL Server environment, which has restrictions on returning large data via method calls, though temp tables can handle binary properties.

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LastErrorHtml
LastErrorHtml As String (read-only)

Provides HTML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastErrorText
LastErrorText As String (read-only)

Provides plain text information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastErrorXml
LastErrorXml As String (read-only)

Provides XML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastMethodSuccess
LastMethodSuccess As Number

Indicates the success or failure of the most recent method call: 1 means success, 0 means failure. This property remains unchanged by property setters or getters. This method is present to address challenges in checking for null or Nothing returns in certain programming languages. Note: This property does not apply to methods that return integer values or to boolean-returning methods where the boolean does not indicate success or failure.

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LastStringResult
LastStringResult As String (read-only)

In SQL Server stored procedures, this property holds the string return value of the most recent method call that returns a string. It is accessible only when Chilkat.Global.KeepStringResult is set to TRUE. SQL Server has limitations on string lengths returned from methods and properties, but temp tables can be used to access large strings.

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LastStringResultLen
LastStringResultLen As Number (read-only)

The length, in characters, of the string contained in the LastStringResult property.

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VerboseLogging
VerboseLogging As Number

If set to 1, then the contents of LastErrorText (or LastErrorXml, or LastErrorHtml) may contain more verbose information. The default value is 0. Verbose logging should only be used for debugging. The potentially large quantity of logged information may adversely affect peformance.

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Version
Version As String (read-only)

Version of the component/library, such as "10.1.0"

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Methods

CompressFile
CompressFile(inFilename As String, destPath As String) As Number

Compresses a file to create a UNIX compressed file (.Z). This compression uses the LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) compression algorithm.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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CompressFileAsync (1)
CompressFileAsync(inFilename As String, destPath As String) As ChilkatTask

Creates an asynchronous task to call the CompressFile method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns .NULL. on failure

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CompressFileToMem
CompressFileToMem(inFilename As String) As Variant

Unix compresses a file to an in-memory image of a .Z file. (This compression uses the LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) compression algorithm.)

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.

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CompressFileToMemAsync (1)
CompressFileToMemAsync(inFilename As String) As ChilkatTask

Creates an asynchronous task to call the CompressFileToMem method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns .NULL. on failure

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CompressMemory
CompressMemory(inData As Variant) As Variant

Compresses in-memory data to an in-memory image of a .Z file. (This compression uses the LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) compression algorithm.)

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.

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CompressMemToFile
CompressMemToFile(inData As Variant, destPath As String) As Number

Unix compresses and creates a .Z file from in-memory data. (This compression uses the LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) compression algorithm.)

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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CompressString
CompressString(inStr As String, charset As String) As Variant

Compresses a string to an in-memory image of a .Z file. Prior to compression, the string is converted to the character encoding specified by charset. The charset can be any one of a large number of character encodings, such as utf-8, iso-8859-1, Windows-1252, ucs-2, etc.

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.

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CompressStringToFile
CompressStringToFile(inStr As String, charset As String, destPath As String) As Number

Unix compresses and creates a .Z file from string data. The charset specifies the character encoding used for the byte representation of the characters when compressed. The charset can be any one of a large number of character encodings, such as utf-8, iso-8859-1, Windows-1252, ucs-2, etc.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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LoadTaskCaller
LoadTaskCaller(task As ChilkatTask) As Number
Introduced in version 9.5.0.80

Loads the caller of the task's async method.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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ReadFile
ReadFile(filename As String) As Variant

Convenience method to read an entire file and return as a byte array.

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.

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UncompressFile
UncompressFile(inFilename As String, destPath As String) As Number

Uncompresses a .Z file. (This compression uses the LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) compression algorithm.)

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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UncompressFileAsync (1)
UncompressFileAsync(inFilename As String, destPath As String) As ChilkatTask

Creates an asynchronous task to call the UncompressFile method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns .NULL. on failure

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UncompressFileToMem
UncompressFileToMem(inFilename As String) As Variant

Uncompresses a .Z file directly to memory. (This compression uses the LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) compression algorithm.)

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.

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UncompressFileToMemAsync (1)
UncompressFileToMemAsync(inFilename As String) As ChilkatTask

Creates an asynchronous task to call the UncompressFileToMem method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns .NULL. on failure

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UncompressFileToString
UncompressFileToString(zFilename As String, charset As String) As String

Uncompresses a .Z file that contains a text file. The contents of the text file are returned as a string. The character encoding of the text file is specified by charset. Typical charsets are iso-8859-1, utf-8, windows-1252, shift_JIS, big5, etc.

Returns .NULL. on failure

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UncompressFileToStringAsync (1)
UncompressFileToStringAsync(zFilename As String, charset As String) As ChilkatTask

Creates an asynchronous task to call the UncompressFileToString method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns .NULL. on failure

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UncompressMemory
UncompressMemory(inData As Variant) As Variant

Uncompresses from an in-memory image of a .Z file directly into memory. (This compression uses the LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) compression algorithm.)

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure.

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UncompressMemToFile
UncompressMemToFile(inData As Variant, destPath As String) As Number

Uncompresses from an in-memory image of a .Z file to a file. (This compression uses the LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) compression algorithm.)

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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UncompressString
UncompressString(inCompressedData As Variant, charset As String) As String

Uncompresses from an in-memory image of a .Z file directly to a string. The charset specifies the character encoding used to interpret the bytes resulting from the decompression. The charset can be any one of a large number of character encodings, such as utf-8, iso-8859-1, Windows-1252, ucs-2, etc.

Returns .NULL. on failure

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UnTarZ
UnTarZ(zFilename As String, destDir As String, bNoAbsolute As Number) As Number

Unpacks a .tar.Z file. The decompress and untar occur in streaming mode. There are no temporary files and the memory footprint is constant (and small) while untarring.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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UnTarZAsync (1)
UnTarZAsync(zFilename As String, destDir As String, bNoAbsolute As Number) As ChilkatTask

Creates an asynchronous task to call the UnTarZ method with the arguments provided.

Note: Async method event callbacks happen in the background thread. Accessing and updating UI elements existing in the main thread may require special considerations.

Returns .NULL. on failure

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WriteFile
WriteFile(filename As String, binaryData As Variant) As Number

Convenience method for writing the contents of a byte array to a file.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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Events

A Visual FoxPro application receives Chilkat ActiveX events by defining a class that IMPLEMENTS the _IChilkatEvents interface, creating an instance of it, and binding that instance to the Chilkat object with EVENTHANDLER(). Visual FoxPro requires the class to implement every method of the interface, so the class below includes a PROCEDURE for each event; leave the ones you do not need empty. The TextData and BinaryData events are defunct: they are deprecated and are never called, but their procedures must still exist because the interface declares them.

Important: Event callbacks from asynchronous method calls are generally not possible from the ActiveX. Events fire during synchronous method calls.

unixCompressEventHandler = CREATEOBJECT("MyUnixCompressEvents")
loUnixCompress = CreateObject('Chilkat.UnixCompress')
EVENTHANDLER(loUnixCompress, unixCompressEventHandler)

DEFINE CLASS MyUnixCompressEvents AS SESSION OLEPUBLIC
IMPLEMENTS _IChilkatEvents IN "Chilkat.UnixCompress"

PROCEDURE _IChilkatEvents_AbortCheck(abort As Number)
? "AbortCheck"
ENDPROC

* The BinaryData event is defunct: it is deprecated and is never called.
* The procedure must exist because the interface declares it, but it can be left empty.
PROCEDURE _IChilkatEvents_BinaryData(data As Variant)
ENDPROC

PROCEDURE _IChilkatEvents_PercentDone(pctDone As Number, abort As Number)
? "PercentDone"
ENDPROC

PROCEDURE _IChilkatEvents_ProgressInfo(name As String, value As String)
? "ProgressInfo"
ENDPROC

PROCEDURE _IChilkatEvents_TaskCompleted(task As Generic)
? "TaskCompleted"
ENDPROC

* The TextData event is defunct: it is deprecated and is never called.
* The procedure must exist because the interface declares it, but it can be left empty.
PROCEDURE _IChilkatEvents_TextData(data As String)
ENDPROC


ENDDEFINE

AbortCheck
AbortCheck(abort As Number)

Enables a method call to be aborted by triggering the AbortCheck event at intervals defined by the HeartbeatMs property. If HeartbeatMs is set to its default value of 0, no events will occur. For instance, set HeartbeatMs to 200 to trigger 5 AbortCheck events per second.

More Information and Examples

FoxPro event implementation:

* Add to the MyUnixCompressEvents class shown in the Events overview above.
PROCEDURE _IChilkatEvents_AbortCheck(abort As Number)
    * Set abort to 1 to abort the method in progress.
ENDPROC
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PercentDone
PercentDone(pctDone As Number, abort As Number)

This provides the percentage completion for any method involving network communications or time-consuming processing, assuming the progress can be measured as a percentage. This event is triggered only when it's possible and logical to express the operation's progress as a percentage. The pctDone argument will range from 1 to 100. For methods that finish quickly, the number of PercentDone callbacks may vary, but the final callback will have pctDone equal to 100. For longer operations, callbacks will not exceed one per percentage point (e.g., 1, 2, 3, ..., 98, 99, 100).

The PercentDone callback also acts as an AbortCheck event. For fast methods where PercentDone fires, an AbortCheck event may not trigger since the PercentDone callback already provides an opportunity to abort. For longer operations, where time between PercentDone callbacks is extended, AbortCheck callbacks enable more responsive operation termination.

To abort the operation, set the abort output argument to 1. This will cause the method to terminate and return a failure status or corresponding failure value.

More Information and Examples

FoxPro event implementation:

* Add to the MyUnixCompressEvents class shown in the Events overview above.
PROCEDURE _IChilkatEvents_PercentDone(pctDone As Number, abort As Number)
    * pctDone ranges from 1 to 100.  Set abort to 1 to abort the method in progress.
ENDPROC
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ProgressInfo
ProgressInfo(name As String, value As String)

This event callback provides tag name/value pairs that detail what occurs during a method call. To discover existing tag names, create code to handle the event, emit the pairs, and review them. Most tag names are self-explanatory.

Note: Some Chilkat methods don't fire any ProgressInfo events.

More Information and Examples

FoxPro event implementation:

* Add to the MyUnixCompressEvents class shown in the Events overview above.
PROCEDURE _IChilkatEvents_ProgressInfo(name As String, value As String)
    ? name + ": " + value
ENDPROC
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TaskCompleted
TaskCompleted(task As ChilkatTask)

Called from the background thread when an asynchronous task completes.

FoxPro event implementation:

* Add to the MyUnixCompressEvents class shown in the Events overview above.
PROCEDURE _IChilkatEvents_TaskCompleted(task As Generic)
    * task is the Task object that has completed.
ENDPROC
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