Re: [Bug-tar] tar 1.15.1 doesn't compile on sunos 4.1.4

[Joerg Schilling]

Paul Eggert <address@hidden> wrote:

> > If backwards compatibility is no longer an issue for GNU tar,
>
> That's nonsense, of course, and I'm a bit surprised to see you
> spouting it.  There's a huge difference between not bothering to
> support old hosts that nobody really uses any more, and dropping
> support for old archive formats that lots of people will need to use
> for the indefinite future.

Sorry, but I do not understand your strategy then.

Could you explain why you don't like to support a OS version that
has been published in 1994 while at the same time still using
an default archive format that has been reported to the GNU tar
maintainers as being the cause of compatibility problems between
1994 & 1994?

> We all realize that you're competing against GNU tar, and are using
> the bug-tar forum to promote your own implementation: but can't you
> please tone it down a little?  bug-tar is supposed to be for the
> support of GNU tar, not for spreading misinformation about it.

I was in hope that it should be possible to have an unbiased discussion
with you....should I have been mistaken?

We are discussing to restructure the PATH concepts for OpenSolaris
and there was the idea to remove /usr/sfw and moving all FOSS that
is not in name conflitcs with UNIX programs directly to /usr/bin.

As a result there would be a /usr/gnu/bin where GNU software would be
not under the original name (e.g. 'gsed') but under a name that
allows to control the replacement of generic UNIX software by 
their GNU counterparts (in this case by creating a link from
/usr/gnu/bin/sed to the file /usr/gnu/bin/gsed).

While possible incompatibilities for e.g. gsed would be detected
immediately, there is a risk that gtar incompatibilities would
not be detected in time. For this reason, I vote against the
/usr/gnu/bin/tar link as long as the default archive format
is not understood by most tar implementations.

If GNU tar would by default create POSIX.1-1988 tar archives, 
I had no problems with the /usr/gnu/bin/tar link. So let me ask
again: is there a chance for this move in gtar?

Jörg

-- 
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