Xref: utzoo comp.sources.bugs:2908 comp.compression:563
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!madler
From: madler@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Mark Adler)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.bugs,comp.compression
Subject: Re: Problem with compress
Message-ID: <1991May14.185447.2498@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 14 May 91 18:54:47 GMT
References: <1991May14.044431.23932@sparky.IMD.Sterling.COM> <26085:May1416:52:3491@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Lines: 19

In article <26085:May1416:52:3491@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) writes:
>I think compressors should ignore problems like this. They shouldn't
>open files, they shouldn't close files, they shouldn't do anything but
>read data and write compressed data. This also makes them more portable.
>A separate, system-dependent program can do the dirty work.

I agree completely.  That's what tar is for.  If you do something like:

     tar covf - foo | compress -c > foo.tar.Z

any symbolic links in the directory foo will be stored as such, and
hard links will only be stored once.

Despite my agreement though, I'm involved in writing a Zip program for
Unix, which tries to cover the functions of tar and compress, and do
them better.   Hypocrisy makes life easier.  :-)

Mark Adler
madler@pooh.caltech.edu