Re: tar -I incompatibility
On Mon, Jan 08, 2001 at 12:28:15AM +1100, Hamish Moffatt wrote:
> Frankly, I don't see why gnu tar needs to be compatible with
> OS-specific versions because most of those are feature-poor anyway.
the one reason for gnu tar to do that is so that it can be a drop-in
replacement for those crappy versions.
on every non-linux machine i have to use, the first thing i do is
download and compile all the GNU tools including tar. i then change
the PATH setting to include /usr/local/bin/gnu at the start.
if the GNU commands were not backwards-compatible then it would
be dangerous to do that.
> I agree with the suggestion that we modify tar for Debian to
> provide -I at least for compatibility for one more release.
i think that whatever we do is going to be broken somehow.
leaving it as -I means that GNU tar would no longer be a drop-in
replacement for a proprietary tar.
changing it to -j means that an upgraded GNU tar is no longer a drop-in
replacement for older versions of GNU tar.
both options suck.
craig
--
craig sanders
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