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From: m5@bobkat.UUCP (Mike McNally )
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: tar
Message-ID: <1003@bobkat.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 22-May-87 10:33:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: bobkat.1003
Posted: Fri May 22 10:33:30 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 24-May-87 08:38:22 EDT
Reply-To: m5@bobkat.UUCP (Mike McNally (Man from Mars))
Distribution: na
Organization: Digital Lynx, Inc; Dallas, TX
Lines: 15
Summary: The 's' option, and other things

What's the point of the 's' (swap bytes) option to tar?  Are there any
systems which store characters of a string in byte-swapped order (so
"TAMALE" looks like "ATAMEL")?  I dig the scene with integers, man, but
strings?  Far out.  Especially since it swaps bytes in the header
blocks as well as in the data.

What's the strange message in the documentation about "blocked
archives"?  (All these things are about BSD tar, not System V.  By the
way, how close is System V tar format to POSIX USTAR format?)

-- 
Mike McNally, mercifully employed at Digital Lynx ---
    Where Plano Road the Mighty Flood of Forest Lane doth meet,
    And Garland fair, whose perfumed air flows soft about my feet...
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