Using UNIX to Compress Article Files

As an example, a sample article will be referred to as "wave" in the filenames. Replace all instances of "wave" with your own short article or author name.

At this time, you have already prepared the TeX file in LaTeX or REVTeX. This includes the title page, your article, references, figure captions, and anything else other than figures. The name for this file is "wave.tex".

You have also created five PostScript files for your figures with the following names.

wave_fig1.ps
wave_fig2.ps
wave_fig3.ps
wave_fig4.ps
wave_fig5.ps

In order to produce a single file to transmit, you need to "tar" the "wave" files. Type the following command.

tar -cf wave.tar wave.tex wave_fig*.ps

If you wish to make sure that your complete article is present in the new file named "wave.tar", type the following command to run the "test file".

tar -tf wave.tar

Your screen will then show this list to confirm that all six files are present.

wave.tex
wave_fig1.ps
wave_fig2.ps
wave_fig3.ps
wave_fig4.ps
wave_fig5.ps

At this point you may choose to compress the single article file. This step is not required, but may help if your e-mail software has trouble with large files. Type the following command.

gzip wave.tar

This produces the compressed file "wave.tar.gz".

The final step is "uuencoding". Please use this feature if your system supports it. For uncompressed files, type the following command. Don't forget to type the file name twice.

uuencode wave.tar wave.tar > wave.uu

If you performed the zip compression, your command line will follow this pattern.

uuencode wave.tar.gz wave.tar.gz > wave.gz.uu

You should now have a file named "wave.uu" or "wave.gz.uu" that is the encoded version of your complete article.

If at any point during this process you wish to undo the commands, use the list below.

uudecode (to reverse uuencode)
gunzip (to reverse gzip)
tar -xf (to reverse tar -cf)

You may send your uuencoded file via the Submission Server or by email. E-mail your final tar/zipped/uuencoded file to rmptex@aps.org. Please identify your transmission as a tar, tar/uuencoded, tar/zipped, or tar/zipped/uuencoded file.