Remember The Cisco Doc Cds ? Zipped .htm Files :(

Remember the cisco Documentation CDs ? Well, I just realized that some of those CDs were 'screwed' up...IMHO. I've been copying some older CDs to HDD to make them faster and safer lately. I've learned the earliest CDs had plain-text HTML code in all of the .HTM files which made up the documentation. But, later cisco changed their plan and made only the /HOME directory .HTM files plain text, but ALL THE OTHER .htm files were zipped ! Yup, so that meant they had to be unzipped on the fly when reading them. I'm pretty sure it's the LAUNCHIT.EXE which put an unzipper in memory and when the Browser (launched from the Launch Dox CD window - whichever one you chose) encountered a .HTM, it knew to unzip it before passing it on tothe Browser process, pretty simple for a programmer. BUT, this means that the earlier CDs could be copied to a HDD (with today's sizes copying a CD is a piece of cake and makes it faster) and then point a browser to the HOME.HTM (usually) and all is fine but the newer one's cannot work like this.

So I'm trying to figure out how to 'hack' this. Seems like the best way is to unzip every .HTM besides those under the /HOME dir and then pass it on to a HDD file system, but that seems like a PITA even via an PKUNZIP or 7Z command-line, which I'm not sure the CL of either can do.

I may post another thread re the differences between 127.0.0.1:8080 and using a HDD letter (file) because it seems that ONLY when I go thru the LAUNCHIT 1st can I get unzipped .htm's on the fly. When I Open a File, the unzipping does not work and all the .HTM's are garbled.

When I Open a File, even the same one the Browser opens (after going thru Launchit.exe) the Browser will NOT unzip them. Seems to me the Browser is being redirected thru whatever was installed at port 8080 in the PCs IP Stack, which makes the unzipping possible. Pretty clever, but all it does is force users to view the docs from CD and not a HDD, a dumb idea IMHO. Remember KISS (for Engineers) ? I do

Maybe this is a task better suited for a Firefox programmer ?

Anyone know how to copy an entire directory structure while unzipping only the .htm files ?
Oh, and the unzipped file has to have the exact same name too
Oh, and disregard the Readonly file flag too.

 

If you want to run the CDs from the hard drive, copy them as ISO files that can be mounted in an image drive.

 

I could be wrong, been wrong b4 and will be wrong some more, but it appears to me you completely missed the point. Copying to a HDD is not the problem at all. I'm using a 500GB SATA2 drive so there's plenty of space. Back when the CDs were made, there wasn't even a 1GB HDD IIRC.

The problem is that ALL THE .HTM files, besides the 1st home.htm, are zipped.

Try opening a zipped file with Firefox. Garbage. I have not figured out how to unzip only the .htm files via command line yet, though I have a post at Sourceforge IIRC re this.

I'm also starting to think, I wonder if Firefox has a work-around for this. Maybe there is a plug-in for FF which wuill unzip all the HTM's it sees ?

 

Just to ensure I don't completely miss the point...
Running the CD the .htm files are unzipped on the fly?

 

Maybe my OP was too confusing.

If I 'only' open FFOX and browse the CD (cd2 with the docs) ALL the .htm files (besides the 5-6 at the home dir) are zipped, garbled when trying to view them with any browser.

The cd is designed (1997) to be run via the AUTOPLAY on CD1, which installs a browser (if needed) then asks for CD2 (the docs) so you put it in. AUTOPLAY on CD2 runs then says to click, LAUNCH Docs which one clicks. That executes AFAIK LAUNCHIT.exe which puts an unzip exe in memory. The Browser comes up, and then one can browse CD2 fine, as the (TSR we used to call them) unzip exe unzips all the .htm files before sending them to the browser.

So it does unzip all the .htm files on the fly, from cd2 to the browser to the screen.

One CANNOT browse cd2 (except for the 5-6 .htm's at the /home dir) WITHOUT unzipping each and every file manually, if that is the route one wants to go. I CAN or could do that but there are too many.

So, I need either a command line way for 7z or pkunzip to go thru an entire dir structure and unzip all the .htm files it sees, about 1000 files I'd guess;
Or, I need a plug-in for FFOX to unzip all the .htm files it sees. I would only load the plug-in when viewing these particualr CDs.
Or I need to write a C program to do it. That way I can copy the CD2 to myHDD and view it normally.
Or, I need to give up and view all Doc CD's I have after 1997 via the AUOTPLAY AND LAUNCHIT.

 

Yes it is.
Is there any reason apart from the slow speed you don't want to run the CDs?

 

Yes, I want to be able to view the Docs from any of myPCs, without the CD being handy, plus, when the CD gets scratched it won't work and then I have no CD at all. That may not matter (much) as I will always have the original cd/version as it is ez to copy the whole cd to the hdd, but the files are still zipped, which is the problem.

 

Then copy the CDs as ISO files and mount them in an image drive. Post #2.

 

Wow -
It doesn't matter WHERE the files are, all the .htm files are zipped. They need to be unzipped (manually, using 7z command line, via a plug-in, or via a program I will write) b4 viewing them.
ISO has nothing to do with it AFAIK.

 

Wow - Really?
If you copy the CDs as ISO files and mount them in an image drive it's the same as running the CDs!
And you can copy those ISO files to any PC with an image drive and run them.

Sorry I can't help anymore.
Bye.

 

WHERE the zipped .htm files are, are not the issue.

ALL the .htm files are ZIPPED. That is the problem.