Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!decwrl!purdue!iuvax!bsu-cs!jbwaters
From: jbwaters@bsu-cs.UUCP (J. Brian Waters)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: zoo
Summary: should not be a problem
Message-ID: <4306@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Date: 13 Oct 88 14:54:40 GMT
References: <8810121728.AA14821@cory.Berkeley.EDU> <4302@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Organization: The Binary Bin
Lines: 16

> Suppose you store some files in a zoo archive, and zoo stores all the
> attribute bits as it gets them from the OS, and one of them happens to
> have a random value of 1.  Suppose a year from now, this bit has been
> defined by Commodore to mean "this is a temporary file that should be
> deleted as soon as it is closed".  When you unzoo the files then, zoo

If I read the AmigaDOS docs correctly this is not a problem.  The bits are
undefined but have a forced value.  I forget if it is 0 or 1 though.  Then
in the future if the bit gets a meaning it is the reverse of the default that
activates the attribute.  This would make it safe to store all 32 bits of
a file.  And also prevents a future version of the op sys from misinterpriting
any files created prior to the release of the version that added the new bit.

-- 
Brian Waters              <backbone>!{iuvax|pur-ee}!bsu-cs!jbwaters
                                          uunet!---/