Date: Mon, 8 Jul 2002 15:41:03 +0100 (BST) From: Mark Valentine <mark@thuvia.demon.co.uk> To: Garrett Wollman <wollman@lcs.mit.edu> Cc: arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Package system flaws? Message-ID: <200207081441.g68Ef3fr063247@dotar.thuvia.org> In-Reply-To: Garrett Wollman's message of Jul 8, 12:10am
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> From: Garrett Wollman <wollman@lcs.mit.edu> > Date: Mon 8 Jul, 2002 > Subject: Re: Package system flaws? > In article <200207080334.g683YQsg042547@dotar.thuvia.org> you write: > > >It made me sit up and think, but you almost certainly have to extend pax(1) > >to realise the extensions (correct me if I'm wrong), and I rather like a > >format I can script with existing utilities. > > Not at all. You certainly *could* do it that way, but whether it's > worth it to do so depends greatly on what it is that you want to do > (that you have declined to share) with the archives other than > installing them. Using the pax headers to store package > metainformation is no more difficult to deal with than using the > comment field in a ZIP archive's directory to do the same thing. If > you're just examining the package, you can use a purpose-built tool to > get the metainformation out, and if you don't need that, you don't > need the tool either. Now I'm confused. I'd assumed you were suggesting using pax(1) extensions to provide some means of direct access to the archive members, not for storing metadata... What advantage is there in storing the metadata as extended pax(1) headers instead of as the first file(s) in the archive? And how does this help solve the problem of direct access to metadata while keeping the package's files compressed? Cheers, Mark. -- Mark Valentine, Thuvia Labs <mark@thuvia.co.uk> <http://www.thuvia.co.uk>; "Tigers will do ANYTHING for a tuna fish sandwich." Mark Valentine uses "We're kind of stupid that way." *munch* *munch* and endorses FreeBSD -- <http://www.calvinandhobbes.com>; <http://www.freebsd.org>; To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200207081441.g68Ef3fr063247>