[Bug-tar] Two feature requests for the future of GNU tar

[Denis Excoffier]

Hi again,

1) I suggest that the
--with-gzip=, --with-bzip2= etc. options given
to ./configure at configuration time to
be reflected in the `*This* tar defaults to:' section
of `tar --help'.


2) I suggest that we can create archives by setting the owner-id and the
owner-name both arbitrarily, both independently of each other and
both independently of any user database. We currently have two options:
- we can set any necessary owner-id (using --owner=n and
  --numeric-owner); no owner-name can be set in this case
- we can set owner-name to any user-name that belongs to the current
  local user database, with or without its associated user-id as
  owner-id (and no possibility to choose owner-id in this case)

As two examples, i would like to create an archive:
- with owner-name=root and owner-id=65535; or
- for a remote partner, for which i have obtained the user-name and
  user-id but no access to their user data base

Same for groups.


Regards,

Denis Excoffier.