Bug#174308: star should become standard tar
On Thu, Dec 26, 2002 at 07:01:21PM +1100, bug1@optushome.com.au wrote:
> On Thu, 26 Dec 2002 02:03:20 +0100
> Eduard Bloch <edi@gmx.de> wrote:
>
> > Not till it begins to emulate GNU tar's default behaviour.
> >
>
> GNU tar should not be seen as the the standard, POSIX should be.
If a standards document goes off into the wild blue yonder and defines
a "standard" that is incompatible with existing practice, then I don't
see why we would have any reason to follow it.
Also, Debian has always taken advantage of the rich set of features
offered by the GNU tools. I see no benefit to limiting ourselves to
the use of POSIX features. I certainly see no a priori reason to
adopt it as the standard to write to. POSIX itself is non-free, and
many of its standardization choices are motivated by compromises for
the sake of proprietary unix systems. I think such systems should be
supplanted, not catered to.
Richard Braakman
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