Subject: Re: bin/695: tar won't restore files that are not writable by owner
To: None <jconklin@netcom.com>
From: Charles M. Hannum <mycroft@gnu.ai.mit.edu>
List: netbsd-bugs
Date: 01/04/1995 18:54:56 
   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.

I'm looking at the code and some ktrace(1) output, and it sure looks
to me like GNU tar reblocks the output after compression.  What it
does *not* do is pad the last block out, unless you use
`--block-compress'.