how universal is tar format? SYSV?

[Ed Gould]

> Can SYS-V systems with cpio reliably read tar tapes produced by 4.2BSD?
> If not, is there an interchange format besides dd that is guaranteed to
> be universally readable by any Unix system with a suitable tape drive?
> 	Brian Reid	decwrl!glacier!reid
> 	Stanford	reid at SU-Glacier.ARPA

System V machines that *have* tar can read 4.2 tapes, but not all of them
have tar.  Right now, there is no reliable interchange other than the
brute force use off dd and human intervention.

The /usr/group standards comittee (now an IEEE group) has suggested
that tar be adopted as the standard interchange.  If this actually
becomes the standard, then I assume (from all of their recent hype
about being standard) that they'll add tar back into SysV.

-- 
Ed Gould		    mt Xinu, 739 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA  94710  USA
{ucbvax,decvax}!mtxinu!ed   +1 415 644 0146