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From: roy@phri.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: tar vs. cpio
Message-ID: <2745@phri.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 13-Jun-87 21:07:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: phri.2745
Posted: Sat Jun 13 21:07:56 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 14-Jun-87 07:39:23 EDT
References: <178@ttrdd.UUCP> <4750008@hpirs.HP.COM> <8684@tekecs.TEK.COM>
Reply-To: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Organization: Public Health Research Inst. (NY, NY)
Lines: 14
Summary: 2 ways to do the same thing


	A little while back, somebody asked the $64k question, "what is the
fundemental difference between tar and cpio".  Various people have taken
shots at the answer, but they are all nit-picking.  One handles symlinks,
one handles devices, one takes file patterns, one is more portable.  But,
people, you miss the real point -- the *is* no fundemental difference
between the two.  They both do the same thing (archive files, ostensibly,
but not necessarily, on tape) and the differences between them are
niggling.  It would be straight-forward to take all the nifty features of
either and fit them into the other.
-- 
Roy Smith, {allegra,cmcl2,philabs}!phri!roy
System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016