China DOS Union

Excellent Compression Software AIN under DOS

When it comes to the most famous compression software under DOS, PKZIP, ARJ, and RAR are the top three. PKZIP is the most classic, with low compression ratio but fast speed; ARJ has a high compression ratio and powerful functions, but is a bit slow; and RAR is a rising star, with compression ratio and speed between the first two, but the window-style operation interface is very convenient.

However, there are excellent ones beyond the top three. I especially like AIN. AIN is an excellent compression tool with a higher compression ratio than ARJ and faster speed than PKZIP. Moreover, the main program of AIN is extremely small, with the main program only 36K, which is much smaller than the top three. If you just use a compression tool for backup by yourself, AIN is definitely the first choice.

The usage of AIN is basically the same as ARJ, RAR, LHARC, etc. If you have used any of them, you don't need to learn again.

The parameter explanations of AIN are as follows:

Syntax:
AIN


a: Add, add files to the compressed archive
d: Delete, delete the specified file from the compressed archive
e: Expand, re-expand (decompress) the files in the compressed archive
f: Append, append files to the compressed archive
l: List, list the file information in the compressed archive
m: Add files to the compressed archive and then delete the source file.
t: Test, test the quality of the compressed archive
u: Update, detect and update the files in the compressed archive
v: Browse
x: Expand with path, decompress along with the original path of the file
y: Copy the compressed file with new parameters

-: Switch leading character
.: Turn off information
f: Split block size, the same as the V parameter of ARJ, can divide a large compressed archive into multiple volumes for easy floppy disk copying
f or fM: Size K (or M) bytes
Example:
f360, f800K, f1.2M
fa: Use free space on the disk
h or ?: Help, list the help information of AIN
g: Password, encrypt the compressed archive with a password
g
gJohn - Set password as "John"
g? - Enter password via keyboard
m: Compression scheme, choose between different compression ratios and compression speeds
m1: Efficient, slow
m2: Normal (default)
m3: Fast compression
m4: No compression
o: Output path (used with a, f, m, u, y commands)
p: Record path (used with e, l, v, x)
p1: Record path including self-directory
r: Re-record path (used with a, f, m, u), including files in subdirectories
s: Set time stamp
u: Update
u1: Efficient, slow
u2: Normal
u3: Fast, secondary compression ratio
w: Connect working directory
x: Expand
x{@|}
x*.exe: exclude *.exe files
x@list.txt: Expand the files listed in list.txt
y: Replace Yes to program inquiries
yo: Overwrite existing
yf: Skip
y: Replace Yes for all inquiries

Simple application examples:
1. Compress all files in the current directory to the compressed archive a.ain
ain a a.ain *.*
2. Compress the installed UCDOS and then backup with a floppy disk.
ain a -f1440 -r ucdos.ain c:\ucdos\*.*

Interested people click the following to download AIN 2.3 version, which contains the executable file compression tool AINEXE.

Open attachment Link invalid (Administrator note)]

But very few people use it. If you use AIN compression, the other party often doesn't know how to decompress it.

I explained that if you are only using it for yourself, AIN is recommended. Then others usually can't figure out what this is even if they copy your stuff away? It's not like ZIP and RAR files that have many software for decrypting passwords, and it's relatively much safer for backing up sensitive data.

ain always prompts to press any key to continue before compression, how to avoid this tedious step?

Probably need to register, find a cracked software to try.

Very good stuff, ah~~ Support the original poster~~

Know there is a company called "Bear Technology" (http://www.beartech.com.tw/exe.htm), their program seems to be able to decompress under DOS, so they are also involved in DOS compressed files, but it is not obvious what type of program is used.

I have used AIN, and there seems to be another one called AINEXE, which is a compressed executable file.