tar frustration (was Re: relative pathname question!)

[Brandon S. Allbery]

As quoted from <7056 at conexch.UUCP> by root at conexch.UUCP (Larry Dighera):
+---------------
| This is so simple that it makes me feel like I don't understand the problem.
| If you want tar to take the names of the files it is to put into the archive
| from a file which contains the names of the files, just do this:
| 
| 	tar cvf /dev/whatever `cat file_of_names`
| 
| You can generate file_of_names with find just like is normally done with
| cpio.  Ain't UNIX grand?
+---------------

But what happens when your file_of_names is > 5120 characters?  The exec
syscall enforces this limit, you can't code around it.

I suggest PD tar or afio (PD cpio); the latter could be modified
(incompatibly, but it would work) to support larger inode numbers and such.
In fact, I would modify afio for larger dev_t's and ino_t's, then force AT&T
to modify cpio compatibly:  they will have to face both issues sooner or
later, and most likely sooner with STREAMS networking (need *lots* of minor
devices and remote or local filesystems could be big).

++Brandon
-- 
Brandon S. Allbery, uunet!marque!ncoast!allbery			DELPHI: ALLBERY
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