Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!netcom!hue
From: hue@netcom.UUCP (Johathan Hue)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Advice needed for porting tar
Message-ID: <5493@netcom.UUCP>
Date: 9 Jan 90 05:35:19 GMT
Organization: NetCom- The Bay Area's Public Access Unix System {408 249-0290 guest}
Lines: 26


I never saw tar on the Amiga so I ported John Gilmore's tar (the one gnu-tar
is based on).  There are a few Amiga specific features I'd like to add, so
if anyone has any suggestions, I'm listening.

1)  I would like to preserve the pure, script, delete, and archive bits.  I
was thinking that I could add an option that when creating an archive would
cause them to be stored in the group and other bits, and when extracting
would use the group and other bits to set the p,s,d, and a bits.  This brings
up another question, what should go in the group and other bits otherwise?
I envision moving tar files between Amigas and UNIX boxes, right now I'm
just replicating the owner's bits in the group and other fields.  Does storing
0's make more sense?

2)  I think it would be better to store the file with UNIX style names,
i.e. leading / gets stored as ../, null string translates to ./, etc.
That way you could extract it on a UNIX box with no problems.  Extraction
on the Amiga would convert back to Amiga style paths.  Any objections?

3)  Would tar be of any use as an incremental backup utility?  I could add
an option which would set (or unset, whatever the correct logic is) the
archived bit of any file it archives.

Replies by e-mail, please.

-Jonathan