[NTLUG:Discuss] regarding a zip'd file

[Chris Cox]

Fred James wrote:
> The zip'd file in question, it has a couple of curious features to its 
> creation.  I am not sure why the contortions but here is how it is made:
> (1) First of course there are a bunch of text files created by the a 
> script.
> (2) These text files are tar'd together, but without the .tar extension 
> (I know the .tar is not required but is normally included).
> (3) The tar file is then compressed using the command "compress" which 
> generates a file with a .Z extension (note the capital Z)

I could guess that it was designed for a FAT16 style filesystem (older
DOS 8.3 names).

> (4) Finally, the compressed file is renamed to change the .Z to .z 
> (note, capital to lower case)

Certainly not needed for DOS 8.3... .z in Unix is the extension
typically associated with pack (the older Huffman compression
algorithm).

> This is all done on a UNIX system.
> 
> Does anyone have a guess as to why?
> 

Not enough info to guess that.  Perhaps if you could tell us
more about the content itself.