creating img.bin file from OSX for transferring over the net to mac os 9

[supernova777]

Moving File Archives from Mac OS X, to the internet, and then to Mac OS 9

hey guys..
weve run into issues creating mac os 9 compatible files from mac os x many times
as u all know.. theres issues with compatibility between stuffit for mac os x + stuffit for mac os 9
i personally find it problematic so i choose to try to create a compatible .dmg
some of our members have frowned upon that .. so the best way to package files moving from os x to os 9
would be to create NDIF .img file which is fully supported in os9...just creating .img file is not enough
the file has to be encapsulated to protect its resource fork for transfering over the net via non-macintosh
filesystems.. to do this we have to protect it by wrapping it inside another format, our
.bin macbinary format is the answer.

well ive struggled with how to do this in the past
but just now.. i used dropDMG 3.2.4 to create the .IMG file (in prefs go to os9 compatible .img read only) (http://c-command.com/dropdmg/support#older-versions)
and then i was able to macbinary this file by dropping to terminal in osx and simply using the command:

"macbinary encode -v filename.ext" and it created the filename.ext.bin file

im testing this file now in mac os 9 to confirm that its compatible

im not sure if the "macbinary" terminal command is present in lower versions of mac os x..
(ie: leopard, tiger, panther, jaguar) but i can confirm that is present in snow leopard + seems to work great!

The resulting filename.img.bin file can be safely uploaded to any filesharing service, or put on windows formatted hard drives without worry of it becoming damaged + unusable. Once its been transferred to the target mac os 9 installation, u simply expand it from macbinary format with stuffit expander and it will automatically mount the image on the desktop.

if anyone knows how to create NDIF legacy image .img file from mac os x from the command line or using an alternate application other than DropDMG please share this info!

[supernova777]

i have now tested this.. and it is confirmed that the macbinary encode works perfectly for mac os 9!!!
same as the .img creation from dropDMG

 

this is great news as it makes packaging files for the mac os 9 site here alot easier + faster as i can do it on a mac intel system that creates the file+ uploads + downloads so much faster.

Code: [Select]

macbinary 1.0 - Jun 17 2009 22:02:00
Copyright 2005-2007 Apple Inc.

Usage: macbinary <verb> <options> file1 file2 ...
perform MacBinary decoding and encoding.

Verbs:
    probe                   Indicates that probe is requested.
    encode                  Indicates encoding is requested.
    decode                  [optional] Indicates that decode is requested.

    If no verb is specified, "decode" is assumed.

General Options:
    -h, --help               display this usage statement and exit.
    -V, --version            display version of macbinary,
    -v, --verbose            display verbose output.

Probing Options:
    This will return 0 if file specified is MacBinary.  --verbose will display
    the MacBinary variant detected.

Encoding Options:
    -t, --type [1 | 2 | 3]   [default: 3] MacBinary encoding type.
                             Use of type 1 not recommended.
    -s, --suffix [suffix]    [optional] suffix to use instead of ".bin".
    -p, --pipe, --stdout     [optional] pipe encoded output to standard output.
    -C, --directory (dir)    [optional] save encoded file in specified
                             directory.
    -o, --rename (file)      [optional] specifies name for output file instead
                             of instead of using input filename with suffix.
                             No suffix is applied to (file).
    -n, --overwrite          [optional] overwrite output file if it exists.

Decoding Options:
    -p, --pipe, --stdin      [optional] decode data piped from standard input.
    -C, --directory (dir)    [optional] save encoded file in specified
                             directory.
    -o, --rename (file)      [optional] specifies name for output file instead
                             of instead of using input filename with suffix.
    -n, --overwrite          [optional] overwrite output file if it exists.