BSD tar (was Re: Making pkg_XXX tools smarter about file types...)

[Tim Kientzle]

Jordan K Hubbard wrote:

> Given ample personal experience with this issue, all I can say is that 
> actions speak a lot louder than words where it's concerned.  :-)
> 
> On Sunday, March 30, 2003, at 11:47 AM, Tim Kientzle wrote:
>> I've given up trying to argue for a
>> well-designed package file format.
>> tar works well enough, I suppose.
>> (Better than the oft-suggested
>> 'zip' format.  Ugh.)


Yes, people have pointed out to me before
that email does not convey irony at all
well.  I should be more careful about that. <sigh>


As it turns out, Jordan, the major reason I've
given up trying to argue for a new format
is that I now believe that 'tar' is actually
a pretty reasonable choice.  (I think that
the performance issues that people have
complained about can be addressed by improving
the pkg_* tool implementations without changing
the file format.  I've started working on
that... ;-)

Tim