Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!pacbell!ames!ncar!noao!asuvax!nud!estinc!fnf
From: fnf@estinc.UUCP (Fred Fish)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: GNU-tar vs dump(1)
Message-ID: <12@estinc.UUCP>
Date: 10 Jan 89 05:21:41 GMT
References: <17999@adm.BRL.MIL> <629@mks.UUCP> <11@estinc.UUCP> <10797@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US>
Reply-To: fnf@estinc.UUCP (Fred Fish)
Organization: Enhanced Software Technologies, Inc.
Lines: 19

In article <10797@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US> jfh@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US (John F. Haugh II) writes:
>This problem and others can be solved by telling GNU-tar about the file
>system.  There is no reason a system utility shouldn't be aware of the
>system layout.

I believe there is, portability.

>How many CPU years are going to be wasted LZW'ing all those sparce blocks
>when a little file system knowelege would have saved us all that grief?
>Write the code once and be done with it.

And then rewrite it every time the filesystem changes.  I would rather
take the CPU hit than support 10 or 15 different filesystem layouts, some
of them completely unrelated to UNIX.

-Fred
-- 
# Fred Fish, 1835 E. Belmont Drive, Tempe, AZ 85284,  USA
# asuvax!nud!estinc!fnf