Re: [Bug-tar] octal reading in spec

[Sergey Poznyakoff]

NBC <address@hidden> wrote:

> and when i check "tar-1.15.91.tar" i've got for the 1st entry
> 30 31 32 36 31 32 00 20

According to the POSIX specs all numeric fields are leading zero-filled
octal numbers. However, the code filling the checksum has the following
comment

    Fill in the checksum field.  It's formatted differently from the
    other fields: it has [6] digits, a null, then a space -- rather
    than digits, then a null.

Whoever wrote it must have had some reasons to do so. However, in my
understanding, it is a mis-feature.

Paul, could you shed some light on it?

Regards,
Sergey