Re: many packages FTBFS, if $TAPE is set
On 2007-08-29 10:58 -0500, John Goerzen wrote:
> On Tue August 28 2007 3:11:20 pm Eduard Bloch wrote:
>
> > Oh, come on. People who put $TAPE into the default environment
> > may also link /dev/null to /dev/hda (or /dev/sda) and complain
> > to the coretutils maintainer because ln isn't unable to think
> > for them.
>
> I don't think so. Hasn't tar defaulted to something
> approximately /dev/rmt0 for *YEARS*, not just on Linux but on
> just about every platform, if -f is not given?
Yes. By default, tar c writes to some tape drive, not to stdout.
The exact device is implementation-defined. It's /dev/rmt/0m on
HP-UX, /dev/rmt0 on AIX, /dev/ntape/tape0 on Digital Unix... GNU
tar defaults to stdout because it's cross-platform.
> Assuming that tar goes to stdout is a losing proposition, I
> think, and not just because of TAPE.
Exactly. The safe, portable way to write to stdout is "-f -".
--
André Majorel <http://www.teaser.fr/~amajorel/>
Choosy spammers prefer lists.debian.org.
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