>    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'.

GNU tar did not use to do this; it used to do blocking, then compression and
then dump whatever compress / gzip returned directly to the tape device (or
file).  I rest my case.

I still wouldn't mind having the functionality added to pax (and its tar &
cpio frontends) as a substitute for GNU tar and GNU cpio though.

Thorsten
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Thorsten Lockert        | postmaster@sigmasoft.com | Universe, n.:
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