,tar file = ZIP?? Help!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Yabbadoo
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Yabbadoo

Have d/l a datafile with extn *.tar.tar, which XP identifies as a WINZIP
file. Neither WINZIP nor WINRAR will touch it. (error on header line 0)
Googled - seemes it's an open-source tape file compressed, and only
accessible via non-Windows utility.

Anyone know of a Windows XP decompressor for it?
File is data only (370,000 words listing) - I want the data into Excel,
eventually.

Appreciate your thoughts ...
 
Thanks to you both, David and Will. It came from a University site. Will try
again. Already tried renaming to get just mword.tar (as seemed sensible)
Len
 
Open it in notepad then and find the word list and copy and paste it. Tar are just files joined together.
 
Doesn't work. According to Google search, TAR files are (origibnally) tape
back-up files, compressed. According to WinZip filetype list (within the
prog), it can decompress TAR files. Biut it doesn't want to know this one!
Notebook does indeed open it, but displays a series of rectangles,
non-ASCII.

I gave the link - if you have the time you might like to try it - please
advise if you have success. WinZip and WinRAR don't work.

"David Candy" <.> wrote in message
Open it in notepad then and find the word list and copy and paste it. Tar
are just files joined together.
 
There are only tar.z files on that site. IE content sniffing determined wrongly that it was a tar file (it has to guess). Try renaming it to tar.z from tar.tar and winzip can unzip it. Winzip is atempting to untar it instead of unzeding it.
 
I gave the link - if you have the time you might like to try it - please
advise if you have success. WinZip and WinRAR don't work.
Click to expand...

Not sure why you can't unzip it. WinZip 9.0 on Windows98SE worked for
me. But the question is - what do you do with them after they're
unzipped? They're plain text files with funny file extensions and the
README indicates you should do something with "BUILD", but it's not
included in the targz and the only linux command I found for "build"
creates an RPM, which does a Windows user no good at all.

Looks interesting, but how are these files useful?
 
They're SUPPOSED to be word lists (dictionaries without definitions), part
of a project and data now in the public domain. I want the word lists as a
datafile in Excel, I'm attempting to create (re-invent the wheel, perhaps) -
a pc-based "search" routine (using combination of wildcard and known
letters).
This already exists, on-line, but takes ages to load.
It's for a particular type of crossword puzzle which has a grid, with
numbered squares, and one or two known letters, user to replace numbered
squares with letters till grid complete - no clues.
It's a personal challenge - I enjoy this particular type of word puzzle,
also Excel programming - but I need the word-list data. Found this file by
devios means, just hope that if/when I get it open, it's in a form I can
use!
Sincerely, Len.
 
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