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About arCHMage
==============

arCHMage is an extensible reader and decompiler for files in the CHM format. 
This is the format used by Microsoft HTML Help, and is also known as Compiled
HTML.

arCHMage is written in the Python programming language and uses PyCHM - python
bindings for CHMLib from GnoCHM project.

Originally this utility was written by Eugeny Korekin, but since 2005 it has
been maintained and developed by Basil Shubin.


Features List
=============

  * Extracting CHM content
  * Dump HTML data from CHM file into standard output
  * Converting CHM file into another file formats (using external tools): 
  		Plain Text, Single HTML, PDF 
  * Running as standalone http-server
  * Extension for Apache Web Server - mod_chm


System Requirements
===================

arCHMage requires the following libraries:

  * Python 2.3 or later
  * PyCHM
  * CHMLib
  * Beautiful Soup (Python HTML/XML parser)

Other (optional) dependencies:

  * Lynx or ELinks - converting HTML to Plain Text
  * htmldoc - converting to single html, pdf formats
  * mod_python - Apache/Python Integration


Installation
============

See INSTALL file for more details. 


Simple Usage HOWTO
==================

There is several ways to use arCHMage package now:

1) Extract CHM file content in to directory (directory will be created):

   archmage -x <chmfile> [directory]
   
   Note: Decompilation will fail, if destination directory already exist.

2) Dump HTML data from CHM file:

   archmage -d <chmfile>
   
   Note: All data dumped in to standard output.

3) Convert CHM file into another file formats:

   archmage -c <output format> <chmfile> [output file]

   Available formats:

      html - Single HTML file
      text - Plain Text file
      pdf - Adobe PDF file format

   Note: To use this feature you must have htmldoc installed. 
   See /etc/arch.conf for details.

4) Run as http-server, which will publish chm file contents on specified port.

   archmage -p <port> <chmfile>

   Note: You can first decompress chm file into directory and use this
   directory instead chm file, i.e: archmage -p <port> <chmdir>

5) Tune your apache to publish chm file contents if there is trailing slash in
   request to that file (you will need working mod_python for that):

   Add that lines to your httpd.conf:

      AddHandler python-program .chm
      PythonHandler archmod.mod_chm

   Restart apache.

   Let's suppose, you have file sample.chm in DocumentRoot of your apache.
   After that tuning you can receive raw chm file, if you point your browser to

   http://yourserver/sample.chm

   or you can view chm file on the fly if you point your browser to

   http://yourserver/sample.chm/ (note trailing slash)