RE: [Bug-tar] Advice/Extensions for use of gnu tar in installer

[Ken Greenebaum]

Hi Sergey,

Thank you for the fast response. I will more closely examine the use of the
-T functionality.  By CVS version of tar, do you mean that the -T parameter
is much more flexible in only pre-released versions of gnu-tar? (we will
want to find something stable to re-release)

I agree the log could be an extension to the existing verbose flag.  I think
it could simply contain a list of the absolute paths to affected files.
Perhaps of the form: 
        file action

Where action could be:
- create (a new file was created)
- replace renamed-existing-file (an existing file was replaced by first
moving the original out of the way)

I will have to take a closer look at --backup.

Regarding AudioAnecdotes, Amazon.com has the first volume online via their
search inside the book feature:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1568811047. They don't have
the 2nd volume searchable yet.

The CD development tree is in CVS. Regrettably I don't have the apache CVS
viewer setup for this project but I will create setup accounts for those
interested.

-Ken

-----Original Message-----
From: Sergey Poznyakoff [mailto:address@hidden 
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2005 3:34 AM
To: address@hidden
Cc: address@hidden; address@hidden
Subject: Re: [Bug-tar] Advice/Extensions for use of gnu tar in installer

Hi Ken,

> 1) It is awkward to add a file to a tar archive such that it will untar to
a
> different location

Have you considered using -C along with -T (--files-from) option? The
CVS version of tar allows to specify almost any command option in -T
list, much like in command line. This seems to be appropriate for your case.

> 2) Extracting a tar for installation doesn't allow for too sophisticated
of
> an uninstaller (uninstall looks like rm -rf).  I would like to instead
> generate a log of each file installed such that I can later use this log
for
> uninstall)

Looks like an advanced version of -v option, doesn't it? What should
this log contain?
 
> 3) tar's options for dealing with replacing existing files are simplistic.
> I really want tar to move the existing file out of the way (perhaps via a
> re-name)

This is already possible using --backup option.

> then to log this occurrence such that the uninstaller may reverse
> it.

Well, if you use --backup, you may then reverse its effect using
a simple script. Am I missing something?

> Oh, by the way, we could use all the help we can get completing the CD for
> the third book if anyone would like to participate!

Sure, that is very interesting. Is an online copy available somewhere?

Regards,
Sergey