Re: [Bug-tar] tar -tf quits before EOF?

[Joerg Schilling]

Tim Kientzle <address@hidden> wrote:

> Historically, there's been a lot of variation in how readers
> handle the end-of-archive:
> * Some implementations stop reading when they see the
>    first all-zero record.  If this happens at the end of a block,
>    they won't read the next block.
> * Some readers will try to drain pipes to avoid sending
>    SIGPIPE to the writer.
> * Some readers aggressively read ahead to try to maintain
>    high throughput.

There are other omplementations that stop reading when they see a filename that 
has a single null byte at the first position.

> I'm curious about why you think so.  I've always thought
> that draining the pipe was the more useful behavior.

If that was mentioned in a standard, I would agreee as this seems to be the only
way to grant that reading from a real tape device would always hit the EOF mark 
on the tape.

Jörg

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