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Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 14:30:11 +0100
From: Alex Zbyslaw <xfb52@dial.pipex.com>
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To: "Sherman, Michael \(GE Energy\)" <michael.sherman@og.ge.com>
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Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: tar or gtar
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Sherman, Michael (GE Energy) wrote:

>Hi all.
>
>I am running 5.3. I noticed that by default the BSD tar is used. Are there any advantages of gtar over tar? If so which ones? Also which compression switch is more efficient -z or -Z ?
>  
>
It depends what you need.  If you need command-line argument 
compatibility with some other hosts, then gtar is better since it will 
install pretty much everywhere (and is the default on e.g. Linux).  Or 
if gtar does something that BSD tar doesn't (incremental "backups", 
maybe?  who knows what other bloat).  Otherwise, I have never found any 
specific disadvantage to BSD tar.  You can easily have both and the 
actual tar files should be compatible.

--Alex