Xref: utzoo comp.bugs.sys5:391 comp.unix.microport:290 comp.unix.xenix:1728
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!brl-adm!brl-smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: comp.bugs.sys5,comp.unix.microport,comp.unix.xenix
Subject: Re: FIFOs break tar, others
Message-ID: <7478@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: 20 Mar 88 01:25:02 GMT
References: <1512@sugar.UUCP> <2795@encore.UUCP> <3776@chinet.UUCP>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>)
Distribution: na
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 7

In article <3776@chinet.UUCP> les@chinet.UUCP (Leslie Mikesell) writes:
>Don't forget that reading from a FIFO deletes the data.  Thus if you let
>tar or cpio read them, some other process is going to lose its input.

Such archive programs should treat FIFOs the same way as symbolic links
or device special files, namely record information about them but not
attempt to archive their contents.