From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Aug 21 22:58:50 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 317F616A4CE for ; Sat, 21 Aug 2004 22:58:50 +0000 (GMT) Received: from kientzle.com (h-66-166-149-50.snvacaid.covad.net [66.166.149.50]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BAECA43D2F for ; Sat, 21 Aug 2004 22:58:49 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from kientzle@freebsd.org) Received: from freebsd.org (p54.kientzle.com [66.166.149.54]) by kientzle.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i7LMwl90006467; Sat, 21 Aug 2004 15:58:47 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from kientzle@freebsd.org) Message-ID: <4127D3A6.1050307@freebsd.org> Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2004 15:58:46 -0700 From: Tim Kientzle User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20031006 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Kris Kennaway References: <4127890E.5040809@freebsd.org> <20040821221518.GA80603@xor.obsecurity.org> In-Reply-To: <20040821221518.GA80603@xor.obsecurity.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: Michiel Boland cc: current@freebsd.org Subject: bsdtar and PaxHeader directories X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2004 22:58:50 -0000 Kris Kennaway wrote: >>Michiel Boland wrote: >> >>>Hi. Last week I did a rebuild from scratch by doing a make release and >>>using the resulting cdrom. I notice that sysinstall creates several >>>directories called 'PaxHeader'. > > FYI, I'm seeing this in package builds too, when running > ssh client bsdtar c | gtar x This will no doubt soon be an FAQ, so just for the record: * These directories only appear if the archive contains "pax extended attributes" and the program reading the archive doesn't understand this extension. * In particular, FreeBSD's cpio and pax programs do not understand this extension, nor does gtar 1.13. * Programs that do understand this extension include: bsdtar, star, gtar 1.14, and any pax implementation that complies with POSIX.1-2001. * You can specify --format=ustar or -o when creating the archive to suppress all extended attributes. Conversely, you can specify --format=pax to force the use of extended attributes. * By default, extended attribute entries are only created if there are file properties that can't be stored in the regular ustar header. The list of triggers includes: file flags, long link names, long file names, non-ASCII characters, extended ACLs, and timestamps prior to 1970 or after 2037. * bsdtar is opportunistic. If it's going to write extended attributes anyway, it will include some additional information, including: inode number, device number, link count, ctime, atime, high-resolution mtime. None of these by themselves will trigger an extended attribute entry, however. * If you're seeing "PaxHeader" directories when you don't expect them, check the corresponding files to see why the attributes are being triggered. The PaxHeader files are themselves text files, so you can just read them to get some clues about what's going on. File flags, long file names, and long link names are likely culprits. Tim