Subject: Re: FYI: upgrading GNU tar
To: NetBSD Userlevel Technical Discussion List <tech-userlevel@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Christos Zoulas <christos@zoulas.com>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 10/11/2002 17:21:12
On Oct 11,  5:17pm, woods@weird.com (Greg A. Woods) wrote:
-- Subject: Re: FYI: upgrading GNU tar

Ok, thanks. Do you think we should adopt OpenBSD's blocksize?

christos

| [ On Friday, October 11, 2002 at 16:09:57 (-0400), Christos Zoulas wrote: ]
| > Subject: Re: FYI: upgrading GNU tar
| >
| > On Oct 11,  3:49pm, woods@weird.com (Greg A. Woods) wrote:
| > -- Subject: Re: FYI: upgrading GNU tar
| > 
| > 
| > This is a NOOP right now since MAXBLK == MAXBLK_POSIX on NetBSD;
| > will not change.
| 
| Ah, OK.  MAXBLK was increased in OpenBSD:
| 
|                                                                                                                      
|    Revision 1.8, Sun Apr 6 06:11:14 1997 UTC (5 years, 6 months ago)   
|    by millert                                                                                                        
|    Branch: MAIN                                                                                                      
|    CVS Tags: OPENBSD_2_1_BASE, OPENBSD_2_1                                                                           
|    Changes since 1.7: +4 -3 lines                                                                                    
|                                                                                                                      
|  Allow creation of archives with block sizes up to 64512 bytes                                                       
|  but complain about non-portability if > 32256 bytes.                                                                
|  Brought up by George Robbins <grr@shandakor.tharsis.com>                                                            
| 
| I didn't bother offering that change to you though  :-)
| 
| BTW, I finally read far enough down on the SunOS 'tar' manual page to
| find this:
| 
|   ENVIRONMENT
|      SYSV3
|           This variable is used to override the default  behavior
|           of  tar,  provide  compatibility  with INTERACTIVE UNIX
|           Systems and SCO UNIX installation scripts,  and  should
|           not be used in new scripts.  (It is intended for compa-
|           tibility  purposes  only.)   When  set,  the  following
|           options behave differently:
| 
|           -F filename
|                Uses filename to obtain a  list  of  command  line
|                switches and files on which to operate.
| 
|           -e   Prevents files from being  split  across  volumes.
|                If  there  is insufficient room on one volume, tar
|                prompts for a new volume.  If the  file  will  not
|                fix on the new volume, tar exits with an error.
| 
| I don't imagine NetBSD needs that much Solaris compatability, but it
| does explain how they deal with the '-F' conflict.
| 
| -- 
| 								Greg A. Woods
| 
| +1 416 218-0098;            <g.a.woods@ieee.org>;           <woods@robohack.ca>
| Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>; VE3TCP; Secrets of the Weird <woods@weird.com>
-- End of excerpt from Greg A. Woods