UnixCompress SQL Server Reference Documentation

UnixCompress

Current Version: 11.6.0

Chilkat.UnixCompress

Compress, uncompress, and unpack legacy UNIX .Z files.

Chilkat.UnixCompress provides UNIX compress and uncompress functionality for legacy .Z files. It supports file-based, memory-based, and string-based workflows, uses LZW compression, can unpack .tar.Z archives, and includes abort and progress-related support for longer-running operations.

Compress to .Z

Compress files, memory data, or strings into UNIX .Z format using LZW compression.

Uncompress .Z data

Expand UNIX-compressed data back to files, memory, byte arrays, or text depending on the application workflow.

File workflows

Compress and uncompress directly between input and output files when working with existing filesystem data.

Memory workflows

Work with compressed or uncompressed byte data in memory when temporary files are not desired.

String workflows

Compress and uncompress text using an explicit character set so string data round-trips correctly.

Unpack tar.Z archives

Use UnTarZ to decompress and extract legacy .tar.Z archives in a single workflow.

Common pattern: Use UnixCompress when the data is in classic UNIX .Z format or when a .tar.Z archive must be unpacked. Use Chilkat.Gzip for .gz and .tar.gz files, Chilkat.Bz2 for .bz2 files, and Chilkat.Compression for raw compression algorithms and general-purpose compression workflows.

Object Creation

DECLARE @hr int
DECLARE @unixCompress int
EXEC @hr = sp_OACreate 'Chilkat.UnixCompress', @unixCompress OUT
IF @hr <> 0
BEGIN
    PRINT 'Failed to create ActiveX component'
    RETURN
END

-- ... use @unixCompress ...

EXEC @hr = sp_OADestroy @unixCompress

T-SQL uses the Chilkat ActiveX through the OLE Automation stored procedures. They must be enabled once on the server (EXEC sp_configure 'Ole Automation Procedures', 1; RECONFIGURE;), and the Chilkat ActiveX registered must match the bitness of the SQL Server instance (64-bit for a 64-bit SQL Server). To bind to a specific major version of Chilkat, append the major version number to the ProgID, such as sp_OACreate 'Chilkat.UnixCompress.11' for Chilkat v11.*.*.

sp_OACreate returns an object token (an int) that is passed as the first argument of every sp_OAMethod, sp_OAGetProperty and sp_OASetProperty call, and released with sp_OADestroy. Objects returned by methods (such as an HttpResponse or JsonObject) are also tokens received through an int OUT parameter; they must likewise be destroyed, and the OUT parameter is NULL when the method fails to return an object. Objects passed as arguments are passed by their token. When an OLE Automation procedure itself fails (non-zero @hr), sp_OAGetErrorInfo describes the error.

Data types: strings are nvarchar(4000); integers, booleans (1 or 0) and object tokens are int; dates are datetime. In the signatures on this page, @success, @iResult, @sResult and the like are the OUT variables receiving a method's return value, @iValue / @sValue receive or supply a property value, and the remaining @ variables are the method's arguments in order.

A string returned through an OUT parameter is limited to 4000 characters. For longer values, retrieve the result as a result set into a table variable instead of an OUT parameter, for example DECLARE @tmp TABLE (outputLine ntext) followed by INSERT INTO @tmp EXEC sp_OAGetProperty @unixCompress, 'LastErrorText'. See string length limitations for strings returned by sp_OAMethod calls.

Methods that pass or return raw byte arrays are not shown on this page, because varbinary(max) values cannot be exchanged through sp_OAMethod (see varbinary(max) limitation). Use the BinData-based alternatives (methods ending in Bd) or the base64 / hex string-encoded variants instead. Binary properties (such as LastBinaryResult) can be retrieved as a result set into a table variable, as shown in their signatures. Asynchronous (*Async) methods and event callbacks are not available from SQL Server.

Properties

AbortCurrent
EXEC sp_OAGetProperty @unixCompress, 'AbortCurrent', @iValue OUT
EXEC sp_OASetProperty @unixCompress, 'AbortCurrent', @iValue
Introduced in version 9.5.0.58

When set to 1, causes the currently running method to abort. Methods that always finish quickly (i.e.have no length file operations or network communications) are not affected. If no method is running, then this property is automatically reset to 0 when the next method is called. When the abort occurs, this property is reset to 0. Both synchronous and asynchronous method calls can be aborted. (A synchronous method call could be aborted by setting this property from a separate thread.)

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DebugLogFilePath
EXEC sp_OAGetProperty @unixCompress, 'DebugLogFilePath', @sValue OUT
EXEC sp_OASetProperty @unixCompress, 'DebugLogFilePath', @sValue

If set to a file path, this property logs the LastErrorText of each Chilkat method or property call to the specified file. This logging helps identify the context and history of Chilkat calls leading up to any crash or hang, aiding in debugging.

Enabling the VerboseLogging property provides more detailed information. This property is mainly used for debugging rare instances where a Chilkat method call causes a hang or crash, which should generally not happen.

Possible causes of hangs include:

  • A timeout property set to 0, indicating an infinite timeout.
  • A hang occurring within an event callback in the application code.
  • An internal bug in the Chilkat code causing the hang.

More Information and Examples
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LastBinaryResult
INSERT INTO @tmp EXEC sp_OAGetProperty @unixCompress, 'LastBinaryResult'

This property is mainly used in SQL Server stored procedures to retrieve binary data from the last method call that returned binary data. It is only accessible if Chilkat.Global.KeepBinaryResult is set to 1. This feature allows for the retrieval of large varbinary results in an SQL Server environment, which has restrictions on returning large data via method calls, though temp tables can handle binary properties.

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LastErrorHtml
EXEC sp_OAGetProperty @unixCompress, 'LastErrorHtml', @sValue OUT

Provides HTML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastErrorText
EXEC sp_OAGetProperty @unixCompress, 'LastErrorText', @sValue OUT

Provides plain text information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastErrorXml
EXEC sp_OAGetProperty @unixCompress, 'LastErrorXml', @sValue OUT

Provides XML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastMethodSuccess
EXEC sp_OAGetProperty @unixCompress, 'LastMethodSuccess', @iValue OUT
EXEC sp_OASetProperty @unixCompress, 'LastMethodSuccess', @iValue

Indicates the success or failure of the most recent method call: 1 means success, 0 means failure. This property remains unchanged by property setters or getters. This method is present to address challenges in checking for null or Nothing returns in certain programming languages. Note: This property does not apply to methods that return integer values or to boolean-returning methods where the boolean does not indicate success or failure.

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LastStringResult
EXEC sp_OAGetProperty @unixCompress, 'LastStringResult', @sValue OUT

In SQL Server stored procedures, this property holds the string return value of the most recent method call that returns a string. It is accessible only when Chilkat.Global.KeepStringResult is set to TRUE. SQL Server has limitations on string lengths returned from methods and properties, but temp tables can be used to access large strings.

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LastStringResultLen
EXEC sp_OAGetProperty @unixCompress, 'LastStringResultLen', @iValue OUT

The length, in characters, of the string contained in the LastStringResult property.

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VerboseLogging
EXEC sp_OAGetProperty @unixCompress, 'VerboseLogging', @iValue OUT
EXEC sp_OASetProperty @unixCompress, 'VerboseLogging', @iValue

If set to 1, then the contents of LastErrorText (or LastErrorXml, or LastErrorHtml) may contain more verbose information. The default value is 0. Verbose logging should only be used for debugging. The potentially large quantity of logged information may adversely affect peformance.

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Version
EXEC sp_OAGetProperty @unixCompress, 'Version', @sValue OUT

Version of the component/library, such as "10.1.0"

More Information and Examples
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Methods

CompressFile
EXEC sp_OAMethod @unixCompress, 'CompressFile', @success OUT, @inFilename, @destPath

Compresses a file to create a UNIX compressed file (.Z). This compression uses the LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) compression algorithm.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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CompressStringToFile
EXEC sp_OAMethod @unixCompress, 'CompressStringToFile', @success OUT, @inStr, @charset, @destPath

Unix compresses and creates a .Z file from string data. The charset specifies the character encoding used for the byte representation of the characters when compressed. The charset can be any one of a large number of character encodings, such as utf-8, iso-8859-1, Windows-1252, ucs-2, etc.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

More Information and Examples
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UncompressFile
EXEC sp_OAMethod @unixCompress, 'UncompressFile', @success OUT, @inFilename, @destPath

Uncompresses a .Z file. (This compression uses the LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) compression algorithm.)

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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UncompressFileToString
EXEC sp_OAMethod @unixCompress, 'UncompressFileToString', @sResult OUT, @zFilename, @charset

Uncompresses a .Z file that contains a text file. The contents of the text file are returned as a string. The character encoding of the text file is specified by charset. Typical charsets are iso-8859-1, utf-8, windows-1252, shift_JIS, big5, etc.

Returns NULL on failure

More Information and Examples
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UnTarZ
EXEC sp_OAMethod @unixCompress, 'UnTarZ', @success OUT, @zFilename, @destDir, @bNoAbsolute

Unpacks a .tar.Z file. The decompress and untar occur in streaming mode. There are no temporary files and the memory footprint is constant (and small) while untarring.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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