What is this $&$!$&*!! .ps file?
That is a Postscript file. You can either display it:
% ghostview something.ps
or print it:
% lpr -P[printer] something.ps
In the command above, [printer] is the name of the printer; pcl (rm. 255),
pcla (rm. 243), or pclb (rm. 338).
What is this $&$!$&*!! .ps.Z file?
That is a Postscript file that has been compressed with the Unix 'compress'
command. If you have the helper applications in your browser preferences
set right, the file will be automatically uncompressed and displayed in
the 'ghostview' previewer. If not, then you should save the file with its
full name (something.ps.Z) intact, and then uncompress it:
% uncompress something.ps.Z
This will replace the file with its uncompressed version.
What is this $&$!$&*!! .tar.Z file?
That's a compressed tape archive file. (Yes, I know it's not on a tape, but
this is Unix.) Save the compressed file and
uncompress it as explained above. You can then list the contents of the
tar file by doing
% tar tf something.tar
This will give you a list of file names. Check to make sure that you don't
already have a file with any of the same names (if you do it will get
trashed), and then unpack the tar file:
% tar xvf something.tar
The 'v' option will list the files as it unpacks them. You can then remove
the tar file.
What is this $&$!$&*!! .tar.gz file?
That's a gzipped tar file. Unzip it using
% gunzip something.tar.gz
and then untar it as explained above.
Last updated 2008 April 8. Written and maintained by Tom Statler