[vox-tech] unzip producing output that is garbage

[Jeff Newmiller]

Dylan Beaudette wrote:
> Howdy,
> 
> downloaded some data from the seamless.usgs.gov website, only to find that the 
> ZIP archives that it delivered expanded to garbage! 
> 
> running `file` on all of the contents returned "data", when other types should 
> have been recognized. Also, a tiff file that was included in the archive is 
> not being recognized as a tiff in any program. Text files have extra garbage 
> near the top of the files. 
> 
> Any thoughts on what could be causing this?
> 
> I have tried `unzip -b`  as well, trying to force the un-archiving of the tiff 
> file as binary, but without luck.
> 
> Any thoughts/ ideas?
> 
> Thanks!
> 

You use the phrase "expanded to garbage"... I have experienced file
corruption in the past using Netscape on Linux when the server
was saying the file MIME type was text.  The symptoms were that the
file would not expand at all, though, so this may not apply in your case.

The correct answer was for the server administrator to fix the MIME
type reporting, but sometimes they are too clueless to respond to
the cluebat, and my workaround at that time was to use IE to download
the files on Windows, and I haven't experienced it in awhile so either
the cluebats have been working or Firefox is implementing the M$-approved
second-guessing of file types.

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