Possible Download Problem Fix for Linux Users?

[Wendy]

Encapsulating the game as tar.gz file/files should give a clean binary download, no matter the operating environment. It also says "I AM A LINUX FILE" to the casual aimless downloader. Average doze users don't recognise the file extension and should avoid it out of habit. Most all Linux users will recognise the file type as THEIRS and almost all have "built-in" routines to un-tar the file. On top of that, most browsers see it as a binary d/l and won't mess with it, except to ask if they want to open it or save it.

[hellcatv]

but then you have to decompress twice...which is painful

what if we called it .run

[Wendy]

but then you have to decompress twice...which is painful

what if we called it .run

That MIGHT work. I know that my system and my browsers would try to download it, but would they try it as text? That's the issue. They see an un-known file type and try to save it as file type text and you lose data in compiled files.

If you encapsulate without trying to compress, it shouldn't be a painful process. Using X-Windows it should be the same as in doze, a momentary blip and you're done. All you're doing is taking the file out of the wrapper. Then you execute it. Shouldn't be too bad. Let me experiment with it in RAR and see what happens if I try it without compression.

[Wendy]

When you run RAR use the "STORE" option. There is NO compression performed, it just encapsulates the file without trying to compress it. The storage is a momentary BLIP. Heck, you could even make it executable if you wanted. Adds about 50K, but the file would self unwrap and then you could start the extraction. That way the browser knows what to do with the file. AND if you use RAR you can determine whether it's type ZIP or type RAR or type EXE.

and it's done in just two commands, even at a command prompt. No fuss, no real muss.

[Ari Rahikkala]

I wonder if newbies would be confused if you put this... *checks priv_009c.sh* ah, shell archive into a tar but didn't compress it...

Being a traditionalist I would, of course, prefer tarballs from `make dist` ...