Re: Size matters. Debian binary package stats
On 12/18/05, Steinar H. Gunderson <sgunderson@bigfoot.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 18, 2005 at 08:23:56PM +0100, Olaf van der Spek wrote:
> > Why would that stop working if you switch compression schemes?
> > I guess tar is coded to use gzip with -z and bzip2 with -j, but why is
> > there no generic way to add coders/decoders (codecs) to tar (and other
> > applications that wish to use compression filters)?
>
> Get real. gzip is probably understood by 99.9% of all installed UNIX systems
> in the world, and you cannot possibly hope to get anywhere near that for a
> relatively obscure alternative. (The -j flag to tar is a Debian specific
> extension, BTW -- I'm not sure if the -z flag is a GNU-specific extension,
> but it wouldn't surprise me.)
I guess what I'm asking is, why are tar and other applications using
gzip instead of a generic library that handles all
compression/decompression and can be easily extended.
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