Contributor: IAN LIN { Updated ARCHIVES.SWG on May 26, 1995 } { Updated ANSI.SWG on May 26, 1995 } { > What I need to know is if there is a simple method to > determine which archiving program was used to compress a file(s)? I am You can check signatures. Strings at certain offsets give them away. From my BBS program, I can tell you some. Each starts at an offset and then has a string. These offsets and strings are as follows and are in hexadecimal: ARC: 0,1a ZIP: 0,504b0304 (old) LH113: 2,2d6c68 LHarc: 2,2d6c68 ZOO: 0,5a4f4f ARJ: 0,60ea > If it is possible to read the file directly could some one > please tell me how, or post some algorithm to show me what I should > be doing. Also is it possible to read a self-extracting file to Use var f:file. Reset(f,1). Seek(f,offset). Blockread(f,somevar,bytecount). }