Joerg Schilling writes: > If interface stability is really important for OpenSolaris, then tar(1), > cpio(1) and pax(1) cannot implement an incomatible way of handling the -/ > option. The option -/ (introduced in 1994) has the following meaning:
This is the point where there's a problem. Your version of tar has no more to do with /usr/bin/tar on OpenSolaris than does GNU tar, AIX tar, or any other implementation. Yes, it'd be possible _in the future_ to create a project that removes the OpenSolaris tar sources (and pax and cpio) and replaces them with links to star. Yes, it might even be helpful to do so. However, that project doesn't currently exist. There is no ARC case that specifies it. There's no plan showing when (or if) it will ever show up. All that we have is a hint in 2004/480 that this "might" be a future project. You're thus asking that we block an otherwise reasonable project on the grounds that maybe -- someday -- there might be a conflict with some other implementation. How far does that extend? How many other people have created their own personal variants of common tools? Should we survey them all, or do just yours alone matter? The issue here isn't with time. Whether you implemented this in 1994 or 1894 wouldn't make a difference here. What does matter is whether the change proposed here makes sense for OpenSolaris itself. I'd like to hear from other ARC members and the original project team on this issue, but I'm leaning towards letting the timer run on this case. -- James Carlson, Solaris Networking <james.d.carlson at sun.com> Sun Microsystems / 1 Network Drive 71.232W Vox +1 781 442 2084 MS UBUR02-212 / Burlington MA 01803-2757 42.496N Fax +1 781 442 1677
