Bloat - Extractor Selector / News: Recent posts

Autopackage 1.0 (http://www.autopackage.org/) has just been released, so I've brought back the .package files for bloat! To install a package file, simply execute it; see "How to install Linux autopackages in 4 easy steps" (http://www.autopackage.org/docs/howto-install/index.html) for more information.

After a long wait, bloat 1.5 is finally out. The Big New Thing in this release is i18n/l10n support - basically allowing translations.

To see what else is new, head on over to the release notes <http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?group_id=67291&release_id=299312>.

Bloat 1.4 has just hit the servers! Not as feature-packed as previous releases, but I felt it'd been too long since a non-bugfix release.

So, what's new? Check the release notes for a detailed changelog, but basically the following is new in Bloat 1.4:
* No more need for Alien for Debian package extraction! Only ar and GNU Tar are needed now.
* Files beginning with "-" now won't work - you'll need to put "-- " first. (e.g. bloat -- -somefile.tgz).
* You can now bloat multiple archives with just one command!
* New archive formats supported: .zoo, .ear, .war
* Undocumented, completely unsupported, probably broken feature added. If you find it out and it borks something, please tell me though ;).
* Various cleanups.... read more

The latest incarnation of Bloat, bloat 1.3.0.1, is now out - it only fixes one bug (the inability to bloat files with a space in their path), but it annoyed me so much I had to release a new version.

Note that this version won't become bloat 1.4, or be in CVS; 1.4 will continue from the base of 1.3, and CVS is for latest development.

I also just noticed that I forgot to announce bloat 1.3's release on the SF project page - sorry.

Well, after a long (5 months, 6 days) period, Bloat 1.2 has been released! There is a lot in Bloat 1.2 which justifies the upgrade from 1.1, indeed there is too much to list here; check the release notes for Bloat 1.2 (http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?release_id=190380) for a cut-down version of the changes. If you have been using a release candidate of Bloat 1.2, I'd also recommend you upgrade, as there you will be able to feel safe in the knowledge you aren't using an RC any more ;-).... read more

Hopefully this release will be the last one before 1.2 final; I want to add more features to bloat, and I can't see any more obvious ways to improve the current base within RC status...

So, grab it now! Or wait for 1.2 final, if you want...

Not many bugfixes, nor fatal bugs, so hopefully the last RC will be RC3, then I can add more features...

Release Candidate 1 of Bloat 1.2 has just hit the servers! Why is there a release candidate? Simple- CVS has been VERY unstable for the last few months. I _THINK_ it's been fixed, but I can't be too sure. There are more new features than normal in this release though:

* Subdirectory-detection code (e.g. for archives which put files in the root of the archive)
* Improved install script - non-root users only need to supply a root password to install
* RPM and Autopackage packages (NOTE: Autopackage itself is currently NOT stable - only download this if you are curious)
* "Quieter" output by default - it doesn't spew the output of the archival programme everywhere unless you use "--verbose".
* Added Debian package (.deb) support!
* _REMOVAL_ of tar/zip format (it isn't used, and it would have been very difficult to re-impliment)
* Numerous improvements to documentation... read more

Bloat 1.1 has just been released to SourceForge's servers - grab it while it's hot! This is mostly a bugfix release, fixing one bug in LHA detection, one in autopackage extraction, a pretty major bug in file existance checking (e.g. ~/foobar-0.42.tar.gz wouldn't work) and a small niggle where "q" (lower-case) wouldn't exit the install script. One feature has been added - the ability to turn off error messages from checking the existance of utilities (for whatever reason).

This is only a minor release, since I just noticed that there was a bug in 0.5 which stopped .tgz files being recognised. Sorry :-(. As an added bonus, though, you get the features currently in CVS - LHA and Ace support, along with a few other bugfixes. :-)
If you are using 0.5, I highly recommend you upgrade to 0.5.1.

Bloat 0.5 has just been released - get it whilst it's hot! This version has had major code changes since 0.4, and hopefully is much better and cleaner than previous versions.
The biggest change in this version of bloat is the removal of the reliance on hard-coded paths. 0.5 first checks for the tool in the PATH variable, then - if it cannot find it - checks one hardcoded destination. This should pick up the vast majority of configurations out there. The check funtion has also been reimplemented.
Support for autopackage has been vastly improved, Webmin has been fixed (it always used to assume tar/gz), and two new formats - RAR and ARJ - have been implemented.
For those who like technical documentation, POD (Plain Old Documentation) has been added. This can be easily converted into man, HTML and many other formats.
Filename detection has also been vastly improved since 0.4 - it is now case-insensitive.

Bloat 0.4 has been released! Quoth the ChangeLog:

* Made the "--help text" into a sub, since I'll be using it twice in the
code
* Made bloat output the results of sub getHelp and information about
--version when run with no args
* Cut out the part about missing utilities from sub getHelp.
* Updated README and INSTALL.
* Support for tar/zip - although I've never seen one, it could be useful...
* Added new file - "README.FILETYPES". Basically lists the file types
supported...
* Basic Autopackage support. Runs the package in debug mode, which extracts
then breaks.
* Made the "BLOAT:" red. Yes, that's all. Nothing major ;).
* Added "ar" support - one problem; I don't know the extension generally
used. All I've seen is .a, so that's what I've put. Of course, this
is where everything gets used :rolleyes:.
* Updated configure scripts to find ar
* Added tar/Z compatibility. Yes
* Last, but not least, updated (c) years ;)... read more

And in other news, I forgot to post news when I actually uploaded the file...
Anyway:
Bloat 0.3 is out! Straight from the ChangeLog-

Version 0.3

* Updated it to move some vital stuff to the end to fix tar.gz etc
* Removed bloat-check related features.
* Added a configure script... if you don't like bad code, don't look ;-)
* Now actually using CVS ;-)
* Supports Mozilla XPI files
* Reorganised the getFileType sub to use alphabetical order. This should
save time when we support more filetypes
* Now using strict; because of this I've now declared vars.

Bloat 0.2 has just been released; a brief summary of changes:

* "modularised" code - uses subs now... no particular reason, just seems
like the right thing(tm)... =)
* Webmin Themes (wbt) supported
* Added Z/compress functionality (not widely used)
* Changed the output of "bloat --check" to use + for the border :P
* Added TODO and CREDITS.
* If, for some reason, you want to extract a webmin module, they
can now be extracted by bloat
* Vanilla BZip2 and GNUZip are now supported...
* Now makes sure that the extension is at the END of the file...... read more

A minor update has been released. This version has the following features -
Any feedback from bloat is preceeded with "BLOAT: "
There is now a utility checker included, to make sure you have the used utilities.