Darren Reed <darrenr@reed.wattle.id.au> writes:

>Using /usr/bin/tar, are there any known instances where it generates a
>format which is incompatible with others, such as Solaris ?

Gnu tar generates Gnu tar archives, which are very similar to but
not identical to POSIX ustar archives (which pax(1) can generate,
the NetBSD version by default, a newer AT&T pax requires the "-x
ustar" switch since it dumps cpio archives by default.).  The only
problems I've seen so far with gnutar archives is that gnutar
doesn't write end-of-volume(?) marks properly so other tars and
paxen may generate messages like "Insert next volume".
While Gnu tar cannot generate ustar archives at all, Gnu cpio
can, why this is so is beyond my understanding (considering that
both tools come from the Gnu project.)

mkb