Bigar HW2 BIG archive tool for the Macintosh now available for download

[ThomasT]

The Macintosh bigar HW2 BIG archive tool is now complete, and is available from the download area as Bigar1.0.zip.uu. Many thanks to Moe for hosting this!

The download includes the bigar command, a Quick Start guide, the standard Lua 4.0.1 lua interpreter and luac compiler for the Macintosh, as well as the Lua 4.0 reference manual.

Key features:

• Can list, extract, and create Homeworld 2 BIG file archives, including multi-TOC archives.
• Any number of BIG file archives as well as directories can be listed, extracted, or used to create an archive. A directory is turned into a "virtual TOC" by specifying a virtual TOC name and alias for the directory.
• When extracting and creating BIG archives, all input archives and directories are first merged into a single "virtual" archive internally before archive extraction or creation.
• Supports various lua compilation options, including the ability to specify little-endian, big-endian, or host-endian compilation.
• Supports various compression options, including an adjustable level of compression as well as compression defaults that duplicate Relic's compression settings for Homeworld 2.
• Supports archive merge options that allow you to select the first, last, newest, or oldest file when the same file is encountered during a merge.
• Supports the ability to "pass through" compression and compilation settings for archive files, making it trivial to adjust these settings for an archive.
• Provides file include/exclude options for directory and archive filtering when listing, extracting, and creating archives.
• Supports highly customizable command display formatting that is especially useful when displaying the contents of an archive.
• Options can be placed in option files that can be read later by bigar.

What is currently not supported:

• bigar is a command line tool and thus must be used from the Terminal. It does not have a GUI.
• Lua decompilation is currently not supported.

As a final comment on the download, for some reason the Mac Safari browser downloads the file as bigar1.0.zip.uu.zip. You will need to rename the file bigar1.0.zip.uu before you can extract it.

[Document Errata Update]: Everywhere where the Quick Start Guide mentions ".bashrc", instead use ".bash_profile". The ".bashrc" file is ignored by the default Terminal and user settings, whereas ".bash_profile" is not.

[dylan1819]

I have done everything that it says in the Bigar Quick Start but it's still saying -bash: bigar: command not found.
Any suggestions?

[Vagyr Admiral]

:?: :cranky: What is this thread???

[Sastrei]

It's a program for the Mac. If you don't own a Mac, then you don't need it.

I know some friends that will find this useful, Thomas!

-Stefan-

[ThomasT]

dylan1819, the error message indicates that the bigar command is not being found by the shell, so that means it is not in the shell's PATH.

I believe I forgot to mention something in the Quick Start Guide. After you make the changes to .bashrc to change the PATH environment variable, you do need to either "source" in that file to the current shell, or start a new shell (from the Terminal). The .bashrc file is only read when a new shell is created. You should know how to create a new Terminal window. To "source" in the .bashrc file you would enter ". $HOME/.bashrc" (without the quotes).

Sastrei, let me know how bigar works for your friends. Also, I am currently working on a lua decompiler. Lord willing, after that I'll move on to a HOD tool, texture tool, font tool, and sound tool. Obviously I can't make any promises as to what or when, but FYI, this is my intention.

[Update: The file should be ".bash_profile" and not ".bashrc". Reasons are described in later responses]

[dylan1819]

Thanks for the help. However, OSX simply won't recognize my /Users/dylan1819/.bashrsc, so I moved bigar to /usr/bin. Now it works

[ThomasT]

Not sure if it was a typo, but it should be ".bashrc" and not ".bashrsc".

[Future Past Update : Dylan1819 and I later discovered that the file should be ".bash_profile" and not ".bashrc". This is an error in the Quick Start Guide.]

[dylan1819]

well that explains it, DUHHHHHH.
*slaps self*


EDIT: Well, even after I renamed it it still doesn't work. Am I ok making .bashrc with textedit? And do I need to be using my administrator account for this? The account I play games and mod games on doesn't have admin access.
Meh, probably should have PM'ed this. Sorry for cluttering your thread.
EDIT 2: Spelling.

[ThomasT]

Ok. Firstly, unfortunately Homeworld 2 needs to be run from an Administrator account. That is in their release notes. I don't know why, but that's what they say.

Secondly, don't use TextEdit to create these shell files because TextEdit tends to create RTF (Rich Text Format) files that the shell has no idea how to parse.

Thirdly (shifting the conversation globally), Dylan1819 and I have PM'ed back and forth and have discovered the problem and the solution. The solution is, instead of creating a ".bashrc" file, create a ".bash_profile" file. Use ".bash_profile" everywhere in the Quick Start Guide that ".bashrc" is mentioned.

The problem with ".bashrc" is that if bash (the Borne Again SHell) is executed as "/bin/sh", the ".bashrc" file is ignored. This is a compatibility mode for the original Borne Shell. On the other hand, ".bash_profile" is always executed on startup of bash. I was unaware of this compatibility mode because I normally use ksh (Korne Shell).

As a final comment, you'll want to visit the Mac and Windows Differences thread for information about the differences between the Mac and PC versions of Homeworld 2. You will also want to visit the RDN Tools on the Mac thread for some things you'll need to know about creating and running mods on the Mac.

[MacModder]

Hello. I have a problem that may be duplicated by other Mac users. I can't get the file "Bigar1.0.zip.uu" to run. I have scoured the internet for help and haven't found it. Any ideas? Any help would be appreciated if I am to live up to my nickname.

[yafn]

My Stuffit Expander knows how to extract .uu files.

I've use Bigar to create big files, though I appear to be doing something wrong with the configuring of the HW2 data path.

I have some notes and couple of links to modding on Mac at - http://www.hw2bsg.org/wiki/index.php..._To_Mod_On_Osx

[MacModder]

Okay, I've got Stuff-it, and Bigar.uu.zip. I ordered it to open with Stuff-it, to un-zip, and it says, 'An error has occured while expanding the file "Bigar1.0.uu.zip" (Archive was compressed with an unknown compression method).

error #17535

What? Did I do something wrong? I am currently downloading a more advanced version of Stuffit, but I don't really believe that will work either. Help!

And by the way the download just failed.

On top of that, I don't even have an 'administator's account'. Or at least it isn't mine.

[MacModder]

I just learned that my 'precious' Intel chip may be the cause. Is that the case?