
     ARJ TECHNICAL INFORMATION                                 April 1998


     ** IMPORTANT NEWS ****************************************************

     Some archiver support programs have incorporated ARJ archive
     identification schemes that are not reliable.  At ARJ 2.39 and above,
     there are now two versions of the large self-extraction module.  The
     17K byte ARJSFX module supports ARJ-SECURITY.  The standard 15K byte
     ARJSFX module does NOT support ARJ-SECURITY.  For the first time, the
     ARJ-SECURITY fields in the main ARJ header are publicly defined.

     At ARJ 2.60, there are three types of ARJ self-extraction modules.

     ARJ has used the same ARJ archive identification scheme since ARJ
     1.0.  The following is the algorithm:

     (1) find the ARJ header id bytes 0x60, 0xEA,
     (2) read the next two bytes as the header record size in bytes,
     (3) if the record size is greater than 2600, go back to the header
         id file position, increment the file position, and go back to
         step (1),
     (4) read the header record based upon the previous byte count,
     (5) calculate the 32 bit CRC of the header record data,
     (6) read the next four bytes as the actual header record CRC,
     (7) if the actual CRC does not equal the calculated CRC, go back
         to the header id file position, increment the file position,
         and go back to step (1).

     This algorithm is fully demonstrated in the UNARJ C source code.

     When using listfiles with ARJ, ARJ support programs should use the
     "-p" option to ensure that ARJ will only extract the selected files
     from an ARJ archive.  This is important for ARJ archives that have
     pathname information stored.

     There is an extended header bug in older versions of ARJ, AV.C and
     UNARJ.C.  The extended header processing in read_header() should
     skip 4 bytes for the extended header CRC and not 2.  This is NOT a
     current problem as no versions of ARJ use the extended header.

     **********************************************************************


     Modification history:
     Date      Description of modification:
     --------  ------------------------------------------------------------
     04/04/98  Added additional comments to self-extraction and password
               discussions.
     02/17/93  Added description of ARJ security fields.
               Added archive date-modified field.
     12/03/91  Added BACKUP flag to header arj flags.
     11/21/91  Described the two types of headers separately.
     11/11/91  Added information about the change in text mode processing.
     06/28/91  Added several new HOST OS numbers.
     05/19/91  Improved the description of extended header processing.
     05/11/91  Simplified this document.  Added volume label type.
     03/11/91  Added directory file type.
     02/23/91  Added more comments.
     01/10/91  Corrected timestamp description and header order of file mode.
     10/30/90  Corrected values of flags in ARJ flags.


     ARJ archives contains two types of header blocks:

        Archive main header - This is located at the head of the archive
        Local file header   - This is located before each archived file

     Structure of main header (low order byte first):

     Bytes Description
     ----- -------------------------------------------------------------------
       2   header id (main and local file) = 0x60 0xEA
       2   basic header size (from 'first_hdr_size' thru 'comment' below)
                 = first_hdr_size + strlen(filename) + 1 + strlen(comment) + 1
                 = 0 if end of archive
                 maximum header size is 2600

       1   first_hdr_size (size up to and including 'extra data')
       1   archiver version number
       1   minimum archiver version to extract
       1   host OS   (0 = MSDOS, 1 = PRIMOS, 2 = UNIX, 3 = AMIGA, 4 = MAC-OS)
                     (5 = OS/2, 6 = APPLE GS, 7 = ATARI ST, 8 = NEXT)
                     (9 = VAX VMS, 10 = WIN95)
       1   arj flags
                     (0x01 = GARBLED_FLAG)
                     (0x02 = OLD_SECURED_FLAG)
                     (0x04 = VOLUME_FLAG)  indicates presence of succeeding
                                           volume
                     (0x08 = NOT USED)
                     (0x10 = PATHSYM_FLAG) indicates archive name translated
                                           ("\" changed to "/")
                     (0x20 = BACKUP_FLAG)  obsolete
                     (0x40 = SECURED_FLAG)
                     (0x80 = ALTNAME_FLAG) indicates dual-name archive
       1   security version (2 = current)
       1   file type        (must equal 2)
       1   reserved
       4   date time when original archive was created
       4   date time when archive was last modified
       4   archive size (currently used only for secured archives)
       4   security envelope file position
       2   filespec position in filename
       2   length in bytes of security envelope data
       1   encryption version (0 and 1 = old, 2 = new)
                              (3 = reserved)
                              (4 = 40 bit key GOST)
       1   last chapter
       ?   (currently none)

       ?   filename of archive when created (null-terminated string)
       ?   archive comment  (null-terminated string)

       4   basic header CRC

       2   1st extended header size (0 if none)
       ?   1st extended header (currently not used)
       4   1st extended header's CRC (not present when 0 extended header size)


     Structure of local file header (low order byte first):

     Bytes Description
     ----- -------------------------------------------------------------------
       2   header id (main and local file) = 0x60 0xEA
       2   basic header size (from 'first_hdr_size' thru 'comment' below)
                 = first_hdr_size + strlen(filename) + 1 + strlen(comment) + 1
                 = 0 if end of archive
                 maximum header size is 2600

       1   first_hdr_size (size up to and including 'extra data')
       1   archiver version number
       1   minimum archiver version to extract
       1   host OS   (0 = MSDOS, 1 = PRIMOS, 2 = UNIX, 3 = AMIGA, 4 = MAC-OS)
                     (5 = OS/2, 6 = APPLE GS, 7 = ATARI ST, 8 = NEXT)
                     (9 = VAX VMS, 10 = WIN95)
       1   arj flags (0x01 = GARBLED_FLAG) indicates passworded file
                     (0x02 = NOT USED)
                     (0x04 = VOLUME_FLAG)  indicates continued file to next
                                           volume (file is split)
                     (0x08 = EXTFILE_FLAG) indicates file starting position
                                           field (for split files)
                     (0x10 = PATHSYM_FLAG) indicates filename translated
                                           ("\" changed to "/")
                     (0x20 = BACKUP_FLAG)  obsolete
       1   method    (0 = stored, 1 = compressed most ... 4 compressed fastest)
                     (8 = no data, no CRC, 9= no data)
       1   file type (0 = binary,    1 = 7-bit text)
                     (3 = directory, 4 = volume label)
                     (5 = chapter label)
       1   reserved
       4   date time modified
       4   compressed size
       4   original size (this will be different for text mode compression)
       4   original file's CRC
       2   filespec position in filename
       2   file access mode
       1   first chapter of file's lifespan
       1   last chapter of file's lifespan
       ?   extra data
           4 bytes for extended file starting position when used
           (these bytes are present when EXTFILE_FLAG is set).
           0 bytes otherwise.

       ?   filename (null-terminated string)
       ?   comment  (null-terminated string)

       4   basic header CRC

       2   1st extended header size (0 if none)
       ?   1st extended header (currently not used)
       4   1st extended header's CRC (not present when 0 extended header size)

       ...

       ?   compressed file


      Structure of archive chapter header (low order byte first):

     Bytes Description
     ----- -------------------------------------------------------------------
       2  header id (comment and local file) = 0xEA60 or 60000U
       2  basic header size (from 'first_hdr_size' thru 'comment' below)
                = first_hdr_size + strlen(filename) + 1 + strlen(comment) + 1
                = 0 if end of archive

       1  first_hdr_size (size up to 'extra data')
       1  archiver version number
       1  minimum archiver version to extract
       1  host OS   (0 = MSDOS, 1 = PRIMOS, 2 = UNIX, 3 = AMIGA, 4 = MACDOS)
                    (5 = OS/2, 6 = APPLE GS, 7 = ATARI ST, 8 = NEXT)
                    (9 = VAX VMS, 10 = WIN95)
       1  arj flags (0x01 = GARBLED_FLAG, 0x02 = RESERVED)
                    (0x04 = VOLUME_FLAG,  0x08 = EXTFILE_FLAG)
                    (0x10 = PATHSYM_FLAG,
                    (0x20 = BACKUP_FLAG)   OBSOLETE < 2.50a
                    (0x40 = RESERVED)
       1  method    (0 = stored, 1 = compressed most ... 4 compressed fastest)
       1  file type (0 = binary, 1 = text, 2 = comment header, 3 = directory)
                    (4 = label, 5 = chapter)
       1  ?
       4  date time stamp created
       4  ?
       4  ?
       4  original file's CRC
       2  entryname position in filename
       2  file access mode
       1  chapter range start
       1  chapter range end
       ?  extra data
          4 bytes for extended file position

       ?  filename (null-terminated)
       ?  comment  (null-terminated)

       4  basic header CRC

       2  1st extended header size (0 if none)
       ?  1st extended header
       4  1st extended header's CRC

       ...


     Time stamp format:

        31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16
       |<---- year-1980 --->|<- month ->|<--- day ---->|

        15 14 13 12 11 10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1  0
       |<--- hour --->|<---- minute --->|<- second/2 ->|



     Compression methods:

     ARJ methods 1 to 3 use Lempel-Ziv 77 sliding window with static Huffman
     encoding.

     ARJ method 4 uses Lempel-Ziv 77 sliding window with pointer/length
     unary encoding.

     There is one decoder for methods 1 to 3 and one decoder for method 4.

     Method 8 saves file attributes but no file data.
     Method 9 saves file attributes and file CRC but no file data.



     Encryption technology:

     ARJ does NOT use DES encryption algorithms.  It uses a combination of
     simple exclusive-or operations.  There are no backdoors to this
     algorithm.  At ARJ 2.60, a version of the Russian GOST encryption
     algorithm is used.



     Security Envelope technology:

     ARJ at 2.39 and above uses a new security envelope mechanism.  To
     defend against brute force attacks on the envelope data, the new
     mechanism uses a 256 bit checksum and takes considerable time to
     "checksum" the entire contents of a secured archive.  This checksum
     is completely unrelated to any ARJ header fields.  The checksum
     data is appended to the ARJ archive after the end of archive marker.
     Deleting this checksum data will invalidate the security envelope.



     Text mode processing:

     As of ARJ 2.30 and UNARJ 2.30, files archived with the -t1 option
     will not have the 8th bit stripped unless the file is extracted to
     a different platform than the original one.  Therefore, it is now
     possible to use ARJ to compress 8-bit text files in text mode and
     extract them back in 8-bit mode.



     end of document
