packxxk(1)

💖 packxxk — pack TI graphing calculator software files 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because this one is so niche and so iconic. packxxk is the little tool that takes your TI calculator app files and wraps them up all pretty in the format your calculator and computer actually want. no cap. ✨

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

packxxk [ -t type ] [ -d date ] [ -o xxkfile ] appfile ...

like, you feed it one or more appfiles and it gives you back a packed file. the flags in brackets are optional, the appfile ... at the end is not. periodt. 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so packxxk is a program that generates Flash Application and OS files for the Texas Instruments TI-73, TI-83 Plus, TI-84 Plus, TI-89, and TI-92 Plus graphing calculators. literally the whole calculator fam. 🔥

the files it spits out are in the ``TIFL'' format — that's the one used by recent versions of TI's GraphLink and TI-Connect software. iykyk.

now here's the part you cannot skip, bestie:

the input file you give to packxxk must already be in TI-Hex or TIFL format to begin with. and — this is the big one — in order for the application to actually be installed, it must have been digitally signed before being packed.

and no, packxxk does not sign it for you. and it does not check whether a signature is even there. 🙈 it's just packing, not parenting. if you need to sign applications in several common formats, you go use rabbitsign(1). that's its whole job. 💜

also! if you hand it multiple input files, packxxk makes you a multi-part TIFL file. very demure, very mindful. 🎀

✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -t type — tell it what kind of program you're making. like 8xk for a TI-83 Plus application, or 73u for a TI-73 operating system. if you don't say anything, the default behavior is to infer the program type from the name of the input file. (and if that input file has no recognized suffix? it just guesses based on the contents of the program header. main character energy, honestly. 👑)
• -c id — manually specify the calculator device ID. e.g. 0x73 for the TI-83 Plus, or 0x74 for the TI-73. look at you, being all specific. 💅
• -d [ month/day/year | day-month-year ] — manually specify the date stamp for the application. don't specify it and the default is to use the current date in the local time zone. ⭐
• -o xxkfile — specify the output file name. and if you don't? the default is to write to standard output. so pipe it somewhere or it's going straight to your terminal, bestie. 😭

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

• rabbitsign(1)

🫶 AUTHOR 🫶

Benjamin Moody <floppusmaximus@users.sf.net>

and that's the whole vibe check, bestie — this page came to you from RabbitSign 2.0, dated July 2009. go pack something slay. 💖✨🎀