[ On Tue, January 26, 1999 at 15:40:32 (-0500), Todd Vierling wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: deprecating long options in tar and cpio (was: CVS commit: src)
>
> On Tue, 26 Jan 1999, Andrew Brown wrote:
> 
> : >Exactly how does having longopts for compatibility (and the ability to have
> : >more than 52 options) *hurt* you?
> : 
> : 52?!  gzip -9!  and so on...
> 
> Tar already uses -[0-9].  As well as almost every letter in the alphabet.  
> :>

NetBSD's current GNU Tar uses only 46 option letters and I can't imagine
what other options one could ever add to it.

SunOS-4's "tar" uses only 25 option letters, though it rules out four
more as impossible ([2369]).

V7 "tar" used 20 letters.

The "tar" defined by The Single UNIX Specification uses only 18.

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

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