[Bug-tar] [PATCH] Remove nonportable check for files containing only zeroes

[Mark H Weaver]

>From da922703282b0d3b8837a99a9c7fdd32f1d20d49 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Mark H Weaver <address@hidden>
Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2018 20:16:14 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] Remove nonportable check for files containing only zeroes.

This check benefitted only one unlikely case (large files containing
only zeroes, on systems that do not support SEEK_HOLE) and was based
on an assumption about file system behavior that is not mandated by
POSIX and no longer holds in practice, namely that for sufficiently
large files, (st_blocks == 0) implies that the file contains only
zeroes.  Examples of file systems that violate this assumption include
Linux's /proc file system and Btrfs.

* src/sparse.c (sparse_scan_file_wholesparse): Remove this function.
(sparse_scan_file_seek): Remove the initial check for files containing
only zeroes.
---
 src/sparse.c | 24 ------------------------
 1 file changed, 24 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/sparse.c b/src/sparse.c
index d41c0ea..3de6560 100644
--- a/src/sparse.c
+++ b/src/sparse.c
@@ -261,26 +261,6 @@ sparse_scan_file_raw (struct tar_sparse_file *file)
   return tar_sparse_scan (file, scan_end, NULL);
 }
 
-static bool
-sparse_scan_file_wholesparse (struct tar_sparse_file *file)
-{
-  struct tar_stat_info *st = file->stat_info;
-  struct sp_array sp = {0, 0};
-
-  /* Note that this function is called only for truly sparse files of size >= 1
-     block size (checked via ST_IS_SPARSE before).  See the thread
-     http://www.mail-archive.com/address@hidden/msg04209.html for more info */
-  if (ST_NBLOCKS (st->stat) == 0)
-    {
-      st->archive_file_size = 0;
-      sp.offset = st->stat.st_size;
-      sparse_add_map (st, &sp);
-      return true;
-    }
-
-  return false;
-}
-
 #ifdef SEEK_HOLE
 /* Try to engage SEEK_HOLE/SEEK_DATA feature. */
 static bool
@@ -343,10 +323,6 @@ sparse_scan_file_seek (struct tar_sparse_file *file)
 static bool
 sparse_scan_file (struct tar_sparse_file *file)
 {
-  /* always check for completely sparse files */
-  if (sparse_scan_file_wholesparse (file))
-    return true;
-
   switch (hole_detection)
     {
     case HOLE_DETECTION_DEFAULT:
-- 
2.15.1