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| Creating and Using Cabinet Files for Java Applets and Libraries |
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Cabarc is a utility that creates, extracts, and lists the contents of cabinet files (.cab files). Cabarc uses a command-line interface similar to that of popular archiving tools. Cabarc supports wildcards and recursive directory searches.
The cabinet format is an efficient way to package multiple files. The cabinet format has two key features: multiple files can be stored in a single cabinet (.cab file) and data compression is performed across file boundaries, which significantly improves the compression ratio. Cabinet file construction can be designed around the number of files to be compressed and the expected patterns for gaining access to them (sequential, random, all at once, or a few at a time).
A key concept of the cabinet file is the folder. A folder is a collection of one or more compressed files that are compressed together as a single entity. Compressing files this way improves the compression ratio. Random access time suffers, however, because decoding (decompressing) any file in a folder requires that all preceding files in that folder must also be decoded. The focus is on maximum compression as opposed to quick decompression, since the cabinet format is designed to deliver file content, such as installable software or Java classes, rather than to stream media.
The following sections explain how to create and use cabinet files:
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