"Hugh McIntyre" <lists at mcintyreweb.com> wrote:
> I hesitate to get involved in this discussion, but...
>
> > 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:
> >
> > -/ Don't strip leading slashes from file names ...
>
> It looks like GNU tar uses a different option for this behaviour:
>
> -P, --absolute-paths
> don't strip leading `/'s from file names
If GNU tar did not try to be incompatible to star, star could be compatible to
GNU tar.
The option -P is used by star since 1986 for allowing to write the last record
as partial record. A feature that helps to use star together with QIC tapes.
This
feature has been added to star before GNU tar esists.
It usually makes sense to watch other implementations of similar programs....
As GNU tar is deliberately incompatible to star for a long time, I stopped
however to watch GNU tar.
> Presumably any merge of star into OpenSolaris is going to have to evaluate
> what to do about incompatible options from Classic Solaris/GNU/star at
> that point anyway. Perhaps something along the lines of:
>
> if (argv[0] == "star")
> getopts(historical_star_options);
> else
> getopts(solaris_compatible_settings);
>
> ?
>
> Hugh.
I recommend you to have a look at the star sources to understand the background.
There are special main() programs called suntar.c (may be called as "tar"
also"), cpio.c and pax.c. These programs have been created in the attempt to be
100% compatible to the Sun variants of the programs. Now, with this arc case,
Sun tries to become incompatible to these programs that have been designed to
be compatible. If this ARC case is approved, it looks like an unfriendly act.
> PS: Solaris tar uses "P" for a different path stripping option, of course:
>
> P Suppress the addition of a trailing ?/? on directory
> entries in the archive.
This option has been introduced more than 10 years after star did introduce -P
See above, even for this problem, there is a solution that is working today!
It will no longer work in case that this ARC case is approved unchanged.
Solaris has become OpenSolaris and OpenSolaris is no longer a Sun only
enterprise. This ARC case will show whether people at Sun already understand
the fact that OpenSolaris depends on people outside of Sun that will become
disappointed in case their interests are ignored.
Making the ON repository writable for people outside of Sun is something that
taks a long time because many technical things need to be done before.
Understanding OpenSolaris and acting the right way is simple and only needs to
switch minds. It could be done immediately without problems. Understanding that
synergy means benefit for both sides is the first step to create a viable
OpenSolaris developer community.
J?rg
--
EMail:joerg at schily.isdn.cs.tu-berlin.de (home) J?rg Schilling D-13353 Berlin
js at cs.tu-berlin.de (uni)
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http://schily.blogspot.com/
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