Methods of archiving Unix Arc/Info coverage
In the Unix environment (Alai), Arc/Info can read, access, and write coverages without any problems. When coverages are directly copied to Windows or Macintosh environments, information is lost (filenames are truncated, capitalized, hyphens removed, etc.). With Arc/Info files, remember to name all files all in lower case letters less than 8 characters long.
To avoid these problems, you can either:
% arc: export cover inputcoveragename outputcoveragename.e00
The *.e00 file has placed all the small pieces of the coverage into one file. Make sure this file name is in <8+3 format to assure universal readability (8 or fewer letters for filename plus three letters for suffix).
To import this coverage again in Arc/Info for Unix OR PC,
% arc: import auto outputcoveragename.e00 newcoveragename
% arc: build all newcoveragename
The coverage has now been rebuilt and can be reopened and edited in Arc/Info, Arctools, or ArcView.
% tar cvf directory directory.tar
To untar this file,
% tar xvf directory.tar directory
Make sure to include a readme file with a directory listing and description of each file.