Because many files and directories can be tarred together, it's usually a good idea to place the .tar file into its own directory and then decompress it. This way you won't be confused by files that existed before you performed the decompression. To look inside a tar archive and see what's in it without expanding it, enter tar -tf filename.tar Files with more than one extension Some of these compression schemes can be used together. Before they can be mailed, binary files must be converted to a text-based form. Uuencoding isn't compression at all, it's encoding.
Files actually get larger when uuencoded.
To decode a .uu file use the uudecode command. Files with .hqx endings that you wish to convert to MacBinary format Moving Macintosh files around the internet requires that they are converted to a form that Unix machines can understand and transmit. Files actually get larger when binhexed, but you'll be able to send the binhexed version through e-mail. If you want to unbinhex a binhexed file, changing it into a MacBinary file in the process, use the mcvert program. Return to the tutor page.