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Date:      Mon, 20 Nov 2000 09:08:44 +0000 (GMT)
From:      Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com>
To:        brett@lariat.org (Brett Glass)
Cc:        nbm@mithrandr.moria.org (Neil Blakey-Milner), chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Jordan Hubbard on Darwin
Message-ID:  <200011200910.CAA04684@usr06.primenet.com>
In-Reply-To: <4.3.2.7.2.20001119182538.043874b0@localhost> from "Brett Glass" at Nov 19, 2000 06:57:33 PM

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> >and GNU tar is pretty much standard for a Unix system.
> 
> If GNU tar is a "standard," it is through the negligence of the BSD
> world. We must fight this and develop equivalent or superior BSD-licensed
> software. If we do not, we are dependent upon an organization which
> would like nothing better than to destroy us! (And could, easily, by
> changing the next version of the GPL.)

A clarification: the BSD "tar" program, and the newer "pax"
program, which attempts to unify tar and other archivers
under one nearly impossible to use roof, are both available
under BSD license.

BSD went to the GNU tar because of the "absolute->relative"
conversion (by default, it eats leading "/" in an ill-considered
attempt to "protect" users) and for its sparse file support.

My biggest gripe about it is that it encourages the use of
options that will make real tar barf, so scripts written with
it in mind are as bad as GNU Makefile's or sh scripts that
assume bash features or csh scripts that assume tcsh features:
they don't work everywhere, like Ritchie, Kernigan, Pike, Bourne,
et. al. intended them to work.


					Terry Lambert
					terry@lambert.org
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.


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