> 
> [ Adding -z option to pax to recreate the -z option in GNU tar ]
> 
> > But if that is done, please make sure the compression is done BEFORE the
> > blocking and not after, like GNU tar is doing.  Would be somewhat more
> > friendly to use with tapes that way...
> 
> Please don't do this.  This would make the netbsd output incompatible
> with every other tar package utility.  Current, .tar.gz means doing the
> blocking after since it follows the 'unix way' of doing things with
> filters.  If you want to add a flag to do blocking on a file by file
> basis then use a different flag other than -z.

Nate, I think you misunderstand what he said.  

I think he was asking for the data to be written in "blocksize" hunks
*after* it has been compressed.  GNU tar feeds compress (or gzip) data
in "blocksize" hunks, but doesn't reblock it.

This problem pretty much requires you to use dd to write out
compressed tar tapes.

	--jtc