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From: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.std.unix
Subject: tar or cpio?
Message-ID: <8009@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 11-May-87 00:05:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.8009
Posted: Mon May 11 00:05:44 1987
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From: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn)

Let's get the 1003.1 standard adopted and worry about perfection later.

In the real world one HAS to have a working "tar" if one exchanges files
with many random UNIX sites, even if "cpio" might be better technically.

Any proposal for CPIO format that is system-dependent ("old cpio")
rather than portable ("new cpio") should be rejected out of hand.

1003.2 should probably include the "cpio" utility, which has many uses
besides tape archives.  1003.1 should stick to "tar" for tape archives,
or remove that section altogether.

I would prefer to remove tape archive format altogether from what is
supposed to be a program/system interface specification (1003.1).  There
simply isn't a single universal interchange medium anyway (not every
system has 1/2" magtape, for example).

Volume-Number: Volume 11, Number
L(B