Re: [Bug-tar] POSIX.1-1988 compliance test is out since more than a year, but...

[Joerg Schilling]

>From address@hidden  Thu Nov 13 10:11:40 2003

>Joerg Schilling <address@hidden> wrote:

>> GNU tar does not yet fully passes the POSIX.1-1988 test:
>> 
>> tartest < /tmp/out 
>> tartest 1.3 (i386-pc-solaris2.9)

>Thanks. It would be useful if you mentioned the exact command you used
>to create /tmp/out.

As I did mention before, a complete description is mentioned in 
README.quicktest.

As I tried to explain in a separate mail, GNU tar-1.13.90 as is is not
usable for external users anymore because it implements an archive format that
cannot be distinguished anymore from a POSIX.1-1988 archive but uses 
vendor unique extensions from the unmanaged POSIX.1-1988 name space.

If you like to stay with vendor unique POSIX.1-1988 extensions, stay with
an archive format that may easily detected as GNU tar. Tar implementations like 
star first check the archive type and construct a property description. If an 
archive is identified as POSIX.10-1988, any vendor unique extensions are 
ignored because they may mean anything.

If you like to make GNU tar ready for todays world, you should first start with 
a clean POSIX.1-1988 implementation that never uses any vendor unique extension.

Once you are ready with this, it makes sense to add POSIX.1-2001 extended header
support. 

As speaking for vendor unique POSIX.1-2001 extensions, POSIX.1-2001 uses a name 
space tha does not need to be managed and does not overlap as long as you don't
have two different vendors of the same name. You could in theory
use any GNU.* keywords, but it would make sense to just implement SCHILY.*
extensions from star that have been verified to work since august 2001.

Jörg

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