Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!longway!std-unix From: domo@tsa.co.uk (Dominic Dunlop) Newsgroups: comp.std.unix Subject: Re: Standards Update, IEEE 1003.1: System services interface Message-ID: <781@longway.TIC.COM> Date: 4 Jul 90 08:55:34 GMT References: <754@longway.TIC.COM> <767@longway.TIC.COM> <770@longway.TIC.COM> Sender: std-unix@longway.TIC.COM Reply-To: uunet!tsa.co.uk!domo@usenix.ORG Organization: The Standard Answer Ltd. Lines: 32 Approved: jsq@longway.tic.com (Moderator, John S. Quarterman) From: Dominic Dunlop In article <754@longway.TIC.COM> gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn) fulminates > The ANSI magtape format is simply inappropriate. UNIX archives were > designed to be single files, making it simple to transport them by > means other than magnetic tape. In this modern networked world, for > the most part magnetic tape is an anachronism. Any archive format > standard for UNIX should not depend on the archive supporting > multiple files, tape marks, or any other non-UNIX concept. Er. As Jason Zions points out in <770@longway.TIC.COM>, > A significant branch of the UNIX(tm)-system and POSIX research community > believes "All the world's a file"; the Research Unix V.8 and Plan 9 folks > are among the leaders here. I feel only slightly squeamish about accusing > them of having only a hammer in their toolbelt; of *course* everything > looks like a nail! The network as a featureless data stream is another example of the same ``traditional'' thinking in the UNIX community. Actually, the datagram-based schemes favoured in the US (oversimplifying grossly, we Europeans have a preference for connection-based systems which do deliver streams) can provide nice record boundaries, which could in turn be used to delimit labels for the proposed tape archive format (after adding some reliability and sequencing). Just because the format is based on IS 1003 for labelled magnetic tapes does not mean to say that it cannot be used on other media, networks among tham. After all, tar's a format for blocked magnetic tapes, but that hasn't stopped us moving tar archives over networks. -- Dominic Dunlop Volume-Number: Volume 20, Number 96