Is there a way to decompress a "imageCompress.exe" compressed image file?

Hello to everyone on this mailing list.

I'm new to VisualWorks and I'm trying to understand how to decompress an imagefile.im that I had previously compressed using the imageCompress.exe tool found in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Cincom\vw8.0pul\packaging\win\" folder.

What I know is that imageCompress.exe uses the zLib library to compress the images, so I googled for an executable program which would decompress zLib compressed files, and I found this little "zdrop.exe" tool on some forum which should do exactly that. But this is what I got:

C:\> zdrop.exe mywork.im.zlib [zdrop.exe needs that the file ends with .zlib extension so I renamed it like that]

> Decompressing mywork.im from mywork.im.zlib...zpipe: invalid or incomplete deflate data

So as you can see for some reason it fails to work with the compressed data...
I'm kinda stuck now.. do you guys know if there is a way to do this?
Thanks a lot in advance.

Musbak

Look at the implementation in ImageCompression parcel, it writes a header first,

compressImageFile: inputName to: outputName resultsTo: aBlock
        "Compress the file named by inputFilename to a file named outputFilename in the
         fortmat expected by the engine for compressed images.  Evaluate aBlock
         with four arguments, the size of the input image, the size of the output image,
         the compression time and the decompression time (in milliseconds), respectively."

        | inputFilename outputFilename input output compressedOutput compTime decompTime headerSize |
        inputFilename := inputName asFilename.
        (self isUncompressedImageFile: inputFilename) ifFalse:
                [
                        self error:
                                (#ImageFileNotUncompressed << #dialogs >> 'image file <1s> is not uncompressed'
                                        expandMacrosWith: inputFilename asString)
                ].
        headerSize := self headerSizeForImageFile: inputFilename.
        outputFilename := outputName asFilename.
        input := inputFilename readStream.
        input binary.
        [
                | header |
                header := input next: headerSize.
                header at: self fileFormatOffset put: self fileFormatZLibCompressed.
                output := outputFilename writeStream.
                output binary.
                output nextPutAll: header.
                compressedOutput := OS.ZLib.GZipWriteStream bestCompressionOn: output.
                Cursor write showWhile:
                        [
                                compTime := Time millisecondsToRun:
                                        [
                                                [input atEnd] whileFalse:
                                                        [compressedOutput nextPutBufferFrom: input]
                                        ]
                        ]
        ] ensure: [input close. compressedOutput close].
        Cursor read showWhile:
                [
                        output := outputFilename readStream binary.
                        [
                                decompTime := Time millisecondsToRun:
                                        [
                                                output skip: headerSize.
                                                (OS.ZLib.GZipReadStream on: output)
                                                        skip: outputFilename fileSize - headerSize
                                        ]
                        ] ensure: [output close]
                ].
        aBlock isNil ifTrue: [^nil].
        ^aBlock valueWithArguments:
                (Array
                        with: inputFilename fileSize
                        with: outputFilename fileSize
                        with: compTime
                        with: decompTime)

-Boris
DeepCove Labs

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Musbak
Sent: Wednesday, May 6, 2015 10:48 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [vwnc] Is there a way to decompress a "imageCompress.exe" compressed image file?

Hello to everyone on this mailing list.

I'm new to VisualWorks and I'm trying to understand how to decompress an imagefile.im that I had previously compressed using the imageCompress.exe tool found in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Cincom\vw8.0pul\packaging\win\"
folder.

What I know is that imageCompress.exe uses the zLib library to compress the images, so I googled for an executable program which would decompress zLib compressed files, and I found this little "zdrop.exe" tool on some forum which should do exactly that. But this is what I got:



So as you can see for some reason it fails to work with the compressed data...
I'm kinda stuck now.. do you guys know if there is a way to do this?
Thanks a lot in advance.

Musbak



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Boris Popov, DeepCove Labs (SNN) wrote

Look at the implementation in ImageCompression parcel, it writes a header first,
[...]

So are you suggesting that the zLib decompressing tool is failing at decompressing it because of that header?
If so, do you think it could it work if somehow I managed to strip the header from the binary file?
Thanks

It's worth a shot. Why do you need to decompress it, by the way?

-Boris
DeepCove Labs

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Musbak
Sent: Wednesday, May 6, 2015 11:45 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [vwnc] Is there a way to decompress a "imageCompress.exe" compressed image file?

Boris Popov, DeepCove Labs (SNN) wrote
> Look at the implementation in ImageCompression parcel, it writes a
> header first, [...]

So are you suggesting that the zLib decompressing tool is failing at decompressing it because of that header?
If so, do you think it could it work if somehow I managed to strip the header from the binary file?
Thanks







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Boris Popov, DeepCove Labs (SNN) wrote

It's worth a shot. Why do you need to decompress it, by the way?

I had previously followed a bunch of tutorials and saved them all in this image, but then I realized that mistakenly had deleted it after compressing it and packing it as an exe with resource hacker..
I also had relocated the VW project folder, and - thinking it had copied the sources to the new path - I deleted the content of the old one without checking first..... :\ Now I was hoping to recover some code at least, I even tried to un-delete the file but without success.
Thanks a lot for your advice though. I'll try and see what I come up with, if you have other ideas please let me know!

Can't you just open the exe you made with Resource Hacker? You can save the
image from there.

Hope this helps,
Steve

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Dear Musbak,

are you sure you don't have the changes file anymore? Or you can un-delete it? If you have it you can start from a fresh image and recreate your code using the Change List tool.

HTH
Helge

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] Im Auftrag von Musbak
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 7. Mai 2015 10:10
An: [hidden email]
Betreff: Re: [vwnc] Is there a way to decompress a "imageCompress.exe" compressed image file?

Boris Popov, DeepCove Labs (SNN) wrote
> It's worth a shot. Why do you need to decompress it, by the way?

I had previously followed a bunch of tutorials and saved them all in this image, but then I realized that mistakenly had deleted it after compressing it and packing it as an exe with resource hacker..
I also had relocated the VW project folder, and - thinking it had copied the sources to the new path - I deleted the content of the old one without checking first..... :\ Now I was hoping to recover some code at least, I even tried to un-delete the file but without success.
Thanks a lot for your advice though. I'll try and see what I come up with, if you have other ideas please let me know!




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Musbak wrote

Boris Popov, DeepCove Labs (SNN) wrote

It's worth a shot. Why do you need to decompress it, by the way?

I had previously followed a bunch of tutorials and saved them all in this image, but then I realized that mistakenly had deleted it after compressing it and packing it as an exe with resource hacker..
I also had relocated the VW project folder, and - thinking it had copied the sources to the new path - I deleted the content of the old one without checking first..... :\ Now I was hoping to recover some code at least, I even tried to un-delete the file but without success.
Thanks a lot for your advice though. I'll try and see what I come up with, if you have other ideas please let me know!

The code to compress the image can be adapted to revert the compression

| filename stream headerSize gzipStream outputFilename outputStream header |
filename := Dialog requestFileName: 'Compressed image' default: 'visual.im' version: #mustBeOld.
filename isEmpty ifTrue: [ ^ self ].
outputFilename := Dialog requestFileName: 'Save image as' default: 'uncompressed.im' version: #new.
outputFilename isEmpty ifTrue: [ ^ self ].
outputFilename = filename ifTrue: [ ^ Dialog warn: 'Filenames must differ' ].
filename := filename asFilename.
outputFilename := outputFilename asFilename.
headerSize := ObjectMemory headerSizeForImageFile: filename.
stream  := (filename withEncoding: #binary) readStream.
[
        outputStream := (outputFilename withEncoding: #binary) writeStream.
        [
                " read the header and set the file format flag "
                header := stream next: headerSize.
                header at: ObjectMemory fileFormatOffset put: ObjectMemory fileFormatNormal.
                outputStream nextPutAll: header.
                " uncompress the image "
                gzipStream := GZipReadStream on: stream.
                [ gzipStream atEnd ] whileFalse: [
                        outputStream nextPut: gzipStream next
                ].
        ] ensure: [ outputStream close ].
] ensure: [ stream close ].
Dialog warn: 'Done'.

Ok, I think I'm making too much confusion here.
Let's try to simplify the use-case.

Suppose I created a simple image which only shows a hello world dialog.
Then I compress it with imageCompress.exe.
Then I make a standalone exe out of it using Resource Hacker (adding it to visual.exe resources and saving it as image-standalone.exe).

So what I have now is only the image-standalone.exe, all the other files are lost.
What I am trying to do is going back to the ST source code.

I managed to extract the compressed image from the image-standalone.exe resources with Resource Hacker.
But then all I can do is just launch it and see the hello world dialog pop up, using "visual.exe compressed-image.im".

If I open it with vwnt.exe, same thing happens, it only shows the hello world dialog.
Inside the VW environment, I don't see a way to load an .im file (compressed or not that it is) so that I could look inside its source code. Probably it's not possible at all? Or am I missing something?

Thanks again,
Musbak

Its almost impossible.

Roland Wagener
--
Roland Wagener * Senior Consultant * [hidden email]
Tel: x49-231-9 75 99-26   Fax: x49-231-9 75 99-20
Georg Heeg eK Dortmund
Handelsregister: Amtsgericht Dortmund  A 12812

Am 07.05.15 um 14:12 schrieb Musbak:
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Musbak,

It would also breach your license agreement with Cincom.

If the scenario is really more serious than you are indicating and you are
a commercial customer who is trying to do this then please get in contact
with me by email and we can discuss your situation.

Otherwise don¹t do it and Roland is right - the source is gone.

Best Regards, Jason
Director EMEA Cincom Smalltalk

On 07/05/2015 13:59, "Roland Wagener" <[hidden email]> wrote:


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Ayers, Jason wrote

Musbak,

It would also breach your license agreement with Cincom.

May I ask why is it so? How attempting to recover my own source code can be considered a violation of agreement of a personal-use license?

Ayers, Jason wrote

If the scenario is really more serious [...] please get in contact [...].
Otherwise don¹t do it and Roland is right - the source is gone.

Now I am confused, in the first statement you are implying that the source code could still be recovered, while in the second you say it's not. Could you explain this a bit better, lincensing issues apart?

Thanks,
Musbak

Musbak,

Sure,

Email me your phone number and I will give you a call - far easier to
explain on the phone.

Regards, Jason

On 07/05/2015 15:28, "Musbak" <[hidden email]> wrote:


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If this was a commercial project and it was critical that the source code is recovered (and the company was willing to pay for it), there are ways to create decompiled code for the Smalltalk code that's in the image.  It's not an easy task but I have been able to do it.

David Buck

I’d say such a situation is not a loss but an opportunity in various ways. An opportunity

-          to learn to be more cautious with your system

-          to learn to have a back-up strategy

-          to learn to cope with lost things

-          to deepen your development skills by redoing the tutorials.

 

;-)

 

Von: [hidden email] [[hidden email]] Im Auftrag von Steven Kelly
Gesendet: Freitag, 8. Mai 2015 07:24
An: [hidden email]
Betreff: Re: [vwnc] Is there a way to decompress a "imageCompress.exe" compressed image file?

 

If you didn't use Run Time Packager, it's rather easy (and doesn't break any Cincom agreement):

1) start the .exe you made (or visual.exe compressed-image.im),

2) press Ctrl+Shit+Y to open an emergency evaluator

3) type the following then press Esc: VisualLauncher open

 

You can then open browsers to see your code, decompiled from the byte code back to source. You'll have lost the comments and the names of temporary variables, but the names of classes, methods and instance variables will be intact.

 

If you did use Run Time Packager or similar, it depends on the settings you used, and whether you stripped down a development image or built it up from parcels into base.im or visual.im. You could try the command line arguments for -doit etc. (see the Help in their entry in the Settings Tool in a normal image). You can try and get the decompiled source code out of the image (assuming you didn't strip the decompiler), or then parcel or BOSS it out and load and decompile it in a regular image. If all you had is the runthroughs of a few tutorials, I imagine it's not worth the effort.

 

All the best,

Steve

 

---

From: [hidden email] on behalf of Musbak
Sent: Thu 07/05/2015 15:12
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [vwnc] Is there a way to decompress a "imageCompress.exe" compressed image file?

Ok, I think I'm making too much confusion here.
Let's try to simplify the use-case.

Suppose I created a simple image which only shows a hello world dialog.
Then I compress it with imageCompress.exe.
Then I make a standalone exe out of it using Resource Hacker (adding it to
visual.exe resources and saving it as image-standalone.exe).

So what I have now is only the image-standalone.exe, all the other files are
lost.
What I am trying to do is going back to the ST source code.

I managed to extract the compressed image from the image-standalone.exe
resources with Resource Hacker.
But then all I can do is just launch it and see the hello world dialog pop
up, using "visual.exe compressed-image.im".

If I open it with vwnt.exe, same thing happens, it only shows the hello
world dialog.
Inside the VW environment, I don't see a way to load an .im file (compressed
or not that it is) so that I could look inside its source code. Probably
it's not possible at all? Or am I missing something?

Thanks again,
Musbak



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