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Re: [Bug-tar] Re: AMTAR brokenness
>>> "Sergey" == Sergey Poznyakoff <gray@Mirddin.farlep.net> writes:
[...]
>> Otherwise use `POSIXLY_CORRECT=1 tar'. (I'm assuming that
>> POSIXLY_CORRECT=1 will coerce older tar versions into
>> producing ustar format. Am I wrong, or is there another
>> way?)
Sergey> No, it will not. Previous versions of GNU tar were not
Sergey> able to produce correct 'ustar' archives. Whatever
Sergey> options you give to previous versions of GNU tar, the
Sergey> produced archives will deviate from the standard.
Ouch! Is that a `will always deviate' or a `can deviate in some
conditions (like -o does)'?
Sergey> Using -o does not help much, either: if the file list
Sergey> to be archived contains long filenames or symbolic
Sergey> links, tar will create GNU extension headers for them,
Sergey> thus hurting the portability of the resulting archive.
We don't have symbolic links. Only regular files and non-empty
directories; furthermore ownership is not important.
So as I sees it the question is: in this conditions, will
old-GNU-tar-without-o deviate more from ustar than
old-GNU-tar-with-o deviates from V7?
If the answer is yes, then I guess we must keep using `o' with
older GNU tar versions, and people with long filenames will have
to get a recent tar version if they want portable tarballs.
Otherwise it seems we simply do not need `o'.
--
Alexandre Duret-Lutz