PUT

File Format
Name	PUT
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Archiving PUT
Extension(s)	.put, .ins
Released	1990

PUT is a shareware archiver/compressor for DOS that produces files with the suffix ".put" (".PUT", using proper DOS naming conventions). The decompressor is called GET. PUT was made by a company called "MicroFox", which seems to have consisted of a single person, Jim Haas.

Version 1.00 was released in 1993, but claims a copyright date of "1990-1993", so maybe it wasn't the first release.

PUT files with an .INS extension are treated specially by the "INSTALL" program that is used by, and distributed with, some versions of PUT/GET.

Format details

Official documentation of .PUT format is lacking, but it's clearly a variant of LHA, and in some cases identical to LHA.

Some versions (1.00, 2.00, 3.10) seem to use standard LHA format. Others (2.20, 3.41+) use a variant in which the 'h' from the compression ID field is changed to a capital 'Z'. If there are any other differences, they must be subtle. PUT has been observed to use methods 'lZ0', 'lZ1', and 'lZ5'.

Identification

Some .PUT files can't be distinguished from LHA format - see LHA#Identification.

Those that can have bytes '-' 'l' 'Z' ?? '-' at offset 2, where the ?? byte is '0', '1', or '5'.

Software

• PUT and GET - Release dates are approximate. Some distributions include other software: INSTALL (an installation utility) and FED (a form editor / text file viewer).
  • v1.00 (1993-01-01)
  • v2.00 (1993-08-10)
  • v2.20 (1993-09-09)
  • v3.10 (1994-03-03)
  • v3.41 (1995-01-01)
  • v3.43 (1995-04-04)
  • v3.45 (1996-01-01)
  • v3.45 at Internet Archive
  • v3.47 (1998-01-01)
• Ainviewer
• Multiple Unpacker
  • Author's homepage (does not seem to contain any relevant information, at least in English)
• SH Archive Identifier
  • Version 2.60

Links

• MicroFox Programs (1999 archive)