[ On Wednesday, January 15, 2003 at 13:21:26 (+0000), Ben Harris wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: building 1.6 on -current: pax-as-tar problem?
>
> Note the words "guidance" and "future".  None of this could be construed as
> mandating changes to existing non-standard applications such as tar.

That's total nonsense and _not_ in the least in the spirit of the
standard.

Even so, tar has been prepared for this change since 1979.  The old
syntax has been effectively deprecated since 1979.  Nineteen Seventy
Nine!  I.e. for almost 23 years (next month according to the timestamps
on my copy from V7).  I.e. a long LONG time before POSIX or anything
like it was even a blue sky dream in the back of anyone's mind.

Authors of software should be expecting to use those POSIX command line
syntax guidelines, and should have been doing so since well before the
first POSIX issue in 1992, let alone since the 2001 issue we've quoted
from.  I started using UNIX in ~1981.  As far as I can remember I have
_NEVER_ typed the old form tar command (i.e. without the '-' on each
group of options), and I have used tar on almost every variant of UNIX
and unix-like system ever released (and even a few that were not ever
publicly released too).

Anyone writing software or typing commands today who complains about tar
blowing up in their face when they use the antique syntax really needs
to just get over it and finally learn to use the proper modern syntax.

-- 
								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>