Re: [Bug-tar] Tar cheats when directed to /dev/null

[Phillip Susi]

On 3/25/2010 1:53 PM, Sergey Poznyakoff wrote:
> Perhaps, it is or it is not. It just means I cannot all of a sudden
> change this default just because one of the usere deems it wrong. There
> well may be hundreds of others who do no share that opinion, or worse yet,
> who depend on that particular behavior of GNU tar.

Depending on broken behavior is itself, broken behavior.  Every other
unix utility writes its output to /dev/null when asked to.  Tar should
do so when asked as well, rather than silently ignore your instructions
and fundamentally alter its behavior.  At the very least it should print
a warning informing you that it has decided to ignore your instructions
and not do as you asked.

What's next?  rm deciding that you didn't REALLY mean to delete that
file and just pretending it succeeded?  Sheesh!