07/30/86  Archive Pathname Convention (general information)

The Archive Pathname Convention is a method used by many commands to
specify a component of an archive.  This permits the command to access
the contents of the archive component rather than the whole archive,
without first extracting the component from the archive.  The component
is specified as part of a pathname, and is signalled by the presence of
the archive pathname delimiter, double colon ("::").  Multiple archives
or components of archives may be specified by also using the star and
equal conventions.


An archive component pathname is a pathname containing a double colon
("::") separating the pathname of the archive segment, on the left,
from the name of the archive component, on the right.  The ".archive"
suffix preceding the double colon is assumed and need not be given
explicitly.

Commands should either support or reject archive pathnames.  Many
commands accept archive pathnames for input files, but in general,
archive pathnames are not permitted for output files.  Only commands
which specifically manipulate archives can modify archives.


Notes: See archive.info for a description of the archive command, which
is used to create and maintain archives.  See starname.gi.info for
information about the star convention.  See equalname.gi.info for
information on the equal convention.  For more information on
pathnames, see pathname.gi.info.  For information on manipulating
archive pathnames, see pathname_manipulation_af.gi.info.


Examples:
   bound_fscom1_.s::copy.pl1
   >udd>Demo>JQUser>mine.archive::myfile


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Historical Background

This edition of the Multics software materials and documentation is provided and donated
to Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Group BULL including BULL HN Information Systems Inc. 
as a contribution to computer science knowledge.  
This donation is made also to give evidence of the common contributions of Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Bell Laboratories, General Electric, Honeywell Information Systems Inc., Honeywell BULL Inc., Groupe BULL
and BULL HN Information Systems Inc. to the development of this operating system. 
Multics development was initiated by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Project MAC (1963-1970),
renamed the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence in the mid 1970s, under the leadership
of Professor Fernando Jose Corbato. Users consider that Multics provided the best software architecture 
for managing computer hardware properly and for executing programs. Many subsequent operating systems 
incorporated Multics principles.
Multics was distributed in 1975 to 2000 by Group Bull in Europe , and in the U.S. by Bull HN Information Systems Inc., 
as successor in interest by change in name only to Honeywell Bull Inc. and Honeywell Information Systems Inc. .

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Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute these programs and their documentation for any purpose and without
fee is hereby granted,provided that the below copyright notice and historical background appear in all copies
and that both the copyright notice and historical background and this permission notice appear in supporting
documentation, and that the names of MIT, HIS, BULL or BULL HN not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining
to distribution of the programs without specific prior written permission.
    Copyright 1972 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Honeywell Information Systems Inc.
    Copyright 2006 by BULL HN Information Systems Inc.
    Copyright 2006 by Bull SAS
    All Rights Reserved