Date: Fri, 04 Oct 2002 10:13:51 -0700 (PDT) From: "Duane H. Hesser" <dhh@androcles.com> To: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Tartools and "art" (and FreeBSD) Message-ID: <200210041713.g94HDpm63371@androcles.com>
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In the past few months, there have been a number of threads in the
FreeBSD lists regarding 'tar'. I have a 'tartools' distribution
which may address some of the concerns expressed, but I have not
responded to those threads for a couple of reasons.
1) I don't want to start any 'tar wars' (my light wand was
recalled due to a manufacturing defect).
2) Tartools is not a 'plug-compatible' replacement for GNU tar,
including the FreeBSD version.
With a little work, item 2 might be overcome.
Tartools was originally written sometime during the Cenozoic; it
has been modified occasionally over the past few years, and a
significant effort went into some modernizations earlier this year,
resulting in a distribution which is available at
http://androcles.com/dist/tartools/
The distribution is BSD licenced.
I won't extend this message unnecessarily by describing the tools
here; the DESCRIPTION file at the above address should be consulted
if you are interested. The description includes some information
about compatibility with other tars; a somewhat more detailed
discussion of compatibility is included in
http://androcles.com/dist/tartools/doc/usingtt/node27.html
I will go this far; the tartools distribution includes the following
programs:
creatar, listar, extractar, cmptar, mvtar, rmtar, appentar, updatar,
and art,
created by conditional compilation. The most interesting (and to
some, most disturbing) feature of these programs is that they are
*interactive*; they also produce "labeled" archives.
In order to satisfy FreeBSDs needs (as I understand them from earlier
threads), it would be necessarily to add a conditionally compiled
'tar' program, with a more familiar option-gathering module (tartools
use 'getopt') and with interactive operation disabled by default.
The latter is easy to do, while the former might require some
negotiation (but otherwise easy to do).
On the positive side, the tools support FreeBSDs "large" device
nodes, and recent modifications are intended to support 64 bit
file offsets (although this is largely untested). The latest
version also opens gzipped, bzipped, or compressed archives
automatically, based upon filename extension.
It is important to note that these tools have never been subject
to the depredations of the average user, only me (and some would
insist that I am *below* average...don't believe them, please).
Considerable "peer review" would be called for.
If there is interest in this, I am willing (and able...pay work is
hard to find these days) to invest the time and effort necessary
to meet FreeBSD user's needs in this area.
One last warning, to those who may elect to examine the code.
Use 4-space tabs.
--------------
The Ancient Programmer
dhh@androcles.com
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