.TH PACK 1
.SH NAME
pack, pcat, unpack \- compress and expand files
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B pack
[
.B \-
]
file ...
.PP
.B pcat
[ file ] ...
.PP
.B unpack
file ...
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I pack
attempts to compress the
.I files
and places the results in
corresponding files named
.IB file .z 
with the same access modes, dates, and owner as the originals.
Successfully packed files are removed.
.PP
.I unpack
reverses the process.
.PP
.I pcat
unpacks files to the standard output by analogy with
.IR cat (1).
.PP
The 
.B .z
suffix may be omitted from the name of the
input file for
.I unpack 
or
.I pcat.
.PP
.I pack
encodes individual characters in a Huffman code.
Option
.BR \- 
causes statistics of the encoding to be printed.
The option toggles on and off at each appearance among the
list of
.I files.
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
The return value of 
.I pack,
.I unpack,
or
.I pcat
is the number of files it failed to process.
No packing happens when the input can't be read
or appears to be packed already,
the output file name exists or is too long or can't be created,
or the input has links or is a directory.