[Zope-CMF] Plone, WinZip, and gz archives

[Steve Rauch]

I encountered this problem myself and did not grasp it at first. When I
WinZip the CMFPlone download it would not install because of a missing
__init__.py in the Extensions folder.

I just assumed it was a beta release, and the power users knew to place
those files where needed. But then I noticed that WinZip shows the file
during the extract process, it just ignores it.

I have since unearthed a 1999 email my Tim Peters noting that WinZip does
not extract 0 byte files (such as the missing __init__.py) from .z, .gz,
.tgz archives but will from .zip archives.

So far I have only seen .gz files on the Plone site. Windows users should
be careful, and double check that the 0 byte files are really being
extracted.

I believe that newer versions of WinZip, and other Windows compression
utilities do the right thing -- but obviously not all of them do.

Steve Rauch
Distance Learning Coordinator
Northwest Center for Public Health Practice
1107 NE 45th Street | Seattle, WA | 98105
srauch@u.washington.edu | 206.616.9233