I've just finished implementing read support
for the new GNU tar sparse file formats in
libarchive/bsdtar, and have a couple of suggestions
you might consider if you ever create a format 1.1:
* Don't pad. The 1.0 format pads the prepended
sparse block description out to a multiple of 512
bytes. There's no compelling need for this; it
just makes the archive larger.
* Include a format specifier ("magic number")
in the prepended block description. Specifically,
I'd like to see something like the following added
to the beginning of the block description:
#!gnu_sparse_file
#format=1.1
This would be compatible with the current
1.0 format if readers of that format ignored
comment lines. (hint, hint ;-)
Cheers,
Tim Kientzle
