DACT(1)

💖 DACT(1) — the manual page, but make it cute 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the dact manual page, from the General Commands Manual. she's iconic, she's a compressor, and she has ✨opinions✨ about your files. let's get into it 🫶

🌸 NAME 🌸

dact — compress or expand a file or stream. that's it. that's the girl. 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

dact [ -dsfcvlniCHOShVNa ] [-b size] [-e algo] [-m file] [-o file] [-u url]
[-p url] [-M command] [-D desc] [-I algo] [-U file] [-E cipher] [file ...]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so here's the tea, bestie: DACT makes your input files smaller by trying to compress each and every block with several different algorithms, and then it picks the best one for each block. no cap. it's literally shopping around for the best deal, block by block, like a girl comparing prices before she checks out. 👑

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -d — decompress the file (or stdin, if you didn't hand her a file), and she'll strip the extension if it's a valid one. clean. tidy. slay. ✨
• -s — show stats about the file, like: Magic number of file, DACT version file was compressed with, Block size used to compress file, Compressed file size, Original file's size, Compression ratio (uncompressed to compressed), File's original name, and CRCs (if available). the receipts, basically. 🧾
• -f — force bad and unsafe things to happen 💀 and you can stack it to make even worse things happen. one -f = overwriting existing files is allowed. two -f = you get to ignore bad magic and CRC check fails. bestie this is the chaos option, use with care, fr fr.
• -c — send output to stdout. this lets you force DACT to send compressed output to a terminal, or send the result of compressing a file to a pipe. 💌
• -v — increase verbosity, and you can stack it to increase verbosity a LOT. currently only up to 3 makes sense. one -v = a bar graph. two -v = bar graph + block information. three -v = bar graph + detailed compression statistics per block. she's not just talking, she's presenting 📊
• -l — list the compression algorithms available. window shopping 🛍️
• -n — toggle use of CRCs. this one is especially useful combined with DACT's network capabilities. it lets you create a compressed file with only the header pointing to a web page that contains the real DACT file — normally the CRCs get checked against the compressed header to make sure they're the same file, but with this option the files don't have to be from the same source (i.e., you can have an updated copy automatically extend itself.) self-care via self-extension, we love to see it 💅
• -i — read input from standard input instead of /dev/tty. this is used to read user-supplied info like encryption keys and passwords from standard input instead of the more appropriate method of opening "/dev/tty." 🙈
• -C — complain when compression errors occur. when a block is selected it gets tested to make sure it decompresses back to the original source, and if it fails, the algorithm isn't used — with this option you actually get told about the failure. she'll let you know, bestie, she's not gonna suffer in silence 😭
• -H — write only the header (no data). this is useful for distributing archives that need only reside on the internet someplace. 🌐
• -O — toggle writing the original file name in the DACT header. per the manual, this has no real use that I know of. iconic honesty honestly 💀
• -S — use speed-size as a metric rather than size. this is not implemented yet. when it exists, it'll make DACT create an optimized compressed file that balances speed of decompression with size. coming soon to a girl near you ⭐
• -h — give usage synopsis. the "what do I even do" button 🫶
• -V — display the DACT version. 🏷️
• -N — upgrade DACT. this fetches the latest binary from the internet and places it in $HOME/.dact/ as dact.bin. if you have binary_check on in your dact.conf file, DACT will check for this file and use it. and if you have Debian and run dact -N as root, the Debian upgrade procedure will upgrade your entire system. yes really. entire system. as root. read that twice. 😭
• -a — DACT modules. this fetches the latest modules from the internet and places them in $HOME/.dact/ in a subdirectory corresponding to your Operating System and CPU Architecture. 🧚
• -b size — use the specified block size to compress the file. the size parameter is in bytes. 📏
• -e num — exclude an algorithm from being used. useful if you know your target won't be able to decompress a certain algorithm (you can get their numbers from the -l option.) 🚫
• -m file — load another config file. this attempts to load the specified file in addition to the normal files, and the options in this file will supersede other options. she said "my config, my rules" 💅
• -o file — alternate output. sends output to a file instead of INFILE.dct. the file can also be a URL or '-' for standard out. 🎯
• -u url — this encodes a URL in the compressed file's header. that URL will be tried (and CRCs checked) before attempting to decompress the data in the actual file. 🔗
• -p url — URLs in DACT can have variables in them that get expanded when network access is required, and this lets you test the results of that extrapolation easily. the variables and their values are:
  • @@OSNM@@ — OS Name (linux, freebsd, sunos, etc)
  • @@OSVR@@ — OS version (2.2.x, 4.2, 5.8, etc)
  • @@OSVS@@ — OS version (short) (2.2, 4.2, 5.8, etc)
  • @@ARCH@@ — Arch (i386, sparc64, sun4u, sun4m, etc)
  • @@DIST@@ — If OSNM=Linux, distribution of Linux.
  • @@FILE@@ — Name of compressed file.
  • @@DTVR@@ — Version of DACT (maj.min.rev)
  • @@DTVS@@ — Version of DACT (short) (maj.min)
  • @@PASS@@ — Prompt for Password
  • @@USER@@ — Prompt for Username
  • @@ATSN@@ — Put an '@'

example:

dact -p http://www.rkeene.org/devel/dact/precompiled/dact-@@OSNM@@-@@OSVS@@-@@ARCH@@.bin
dact: http://www.rkeene.org/devel/dact/precompiled/dact-linux-2.4-i586.bin

• -M command — this executes a command from the command line as if it appeared in "dact.conf". 🪄
• -D desc — encode the desc specified into the header of the compressed file. putting your little note in the header, like a signature on a love letter 💌
• -I num — use only 1 algorithm (and uncompressed as a fall-back). useful if you want to limit yourself to a certain type of compression. monogamy but make it compression 🎀
• -U file — encode the specified file into the header of the compressed file. this file will be searched (line-by-line) for a working URL to download compressed content from. see also -u. 🔍
• -E cipher — enable encryption using the specified algorithm. different algorithms use different authentication methods. 🔐

🌈 FILES 🌈

• $HOME/.dact/
• $HOME/.dact/dact.conf
• /etc/dact.conf

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

gzip(1), bzip2(1), mcrypt(3)

💜 AUTHOR 💜

Roy Keene <dact@rkeene.org> — the legend herself, the main character, no notes 🫶

and that's the whole page bestie!! this was the DACT(1) manual page from the General Commands Manual — go forth, compress responsibly, and remember: two -f is a lifestyle choice, not a personality 💅✨🎀🦋🌸