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Date:      Sun, 2 Apr 2000 13:14:24 +0000
From:      Anatoly Vorobey <mellon@pobox.com>
To:        Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>, Marc Olzheim <marcolz@stack.nl>
Cc:        freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: bin/17619: pax cannot read all tar files created by tar.
Message-ID:  <20000402131424.A61897@happy.checkpoint.com>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0004022001380.1363-100000@alphplex.bde.org>; from bde@zeta.org.au on Sun, Apr 02, 2000 at 08:30:37PM %2B1000
References:  <200004020840.AAA76390@freefall.freebsd.org> <Pine.BSF.4.21.0004022001380.1363-100000@alphplex.bde.org>

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On Sun, Apr 02, 2000 at 08:30:37PM +1000, Bruce Evans wrote:

> >  FWIW, the page at www.paranoia.com/~vax/tar_format.html , currently
> >  uavailable but cached at
> >  http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:www.paranoia.com/~vax/tar_format.html ,
> >  says that there must be two trailer blocks. 
> 
> This is POSIX.1 standard.  gnu tar-1.11.2 never claimed to be POSIX
> standard, and isn't (see gnu cpio/README).  gnu tar-1.11.2 is now more
> than 8 years old, but gnu tar-1.13 still has the trailer block bug
> and the bugs referred to in cpio/README.

Bah. So what should be done in this case (assuming something needs
to be done?). I can patch pax to accept one-block archives and
yet produce correct archives - maybe that's the way to go? Given that 
the GNU tar maintainer had more than 8 years to think about it, he's
obviously emotionally attached to one-trailing-block files and won't
let them go ;)

I admit I didn't even know pax(1) existed until I saw the PR and
was sufficiently intrigued to look at it ;)

By the way, Marc, Solaris's tar (SunOS 5.6) does handle correctly your
example (creates a tarfile with two trailing blocks), so if you have 
anything specific from Solaris's tar that breaks pax, do tell.

-- 
Anatoly Vorobey,
mellon@pobox.com http://pobox.com/~mellon/
"Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly" - G.K.Chesterton


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