Michael Paoli (HE12025-08-09): > I don't think there's any tar format that has an "index" or the like, > it's generally just a tar header,
There is no global tar header. > then for each file (of any type), > specific header for that, and any associated data, Yes. > and I think there's > also some type of end marker or the like, perhaps with a bit of metadata > at the end too. Only padding of 0 until the next multiple of 512 octets. > And there may be some type of marker or the like at > the end of the archive too. Again, only more padding of 0. > But I think that's basically it. Yes. > So, even if tar is requested to restore a single > file, > and has gotten to the point in archive where it's extracted that file, > that doesn't mean it can quit at that point. It could observe: hey, decompression library says there is a new block, 100K compressed, 5M uncompressed; I am 2M into a 10M file I do not want to extract, let me skip that block, 100K of compressed input, I am now 7M into that file I do not need to extract. But as I said, it does not do that, and that would be useless because xz files do not have block in practice. Regards, -- Nicolas George
