Article View: comp.std.unix
Article #997Re: tar or cpio?
From: Joseph S. D. Yao
Date: Tue, 12 May 1987 13:14
Date: Tue, 12 May 1987 13:14
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In article <8006@ut-sally.UUCP> guy@sun.com (Guy Harris) writes:
> 3) It is less common. Almost all UNIX systems that support
> "cpio" also support "tar"; many UNIX systems that support
> "tar" do not support "cpio".
Guy's arguments are mostly good, especially when reasoning about
the byte-order problem. It should perhaps be noted, though, that
cpio pre-dates tar, and that there are probably numerous systems
"out there" that have cpio but not tar. This, at least, seems to
be one of the arguments used by X/OPEN.
Of course, terms like "numerous", "almost all", and "many" are
hard to argue against, because they're so fuzzy.
Personally, I have found good use for both (cpio -p is rather
more elegant than the 2-tar equivalent kludge). However, I have
had minutely more foul-ups with cpio than with tar. (At least,
with current versions of tar.)
Joe Yao jsdy@hadron.COM (not yet domainised)
hadron!jsdy@{seismo.CSS.GOV,dtix.ARPA,decuac.DEC.COM}
{arinc,att,avatar,cos,decuac,dtix,ecogong,kcwc}!hadron!jsdy
{netex,netxcom,rlgvax,seismo,smsdpg,sundc}!hadron!jsdy
Volume-Number: Volume 11, Number 22
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Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!mnetor!seismo!ut-sally!std-unix From: jsdy@hadron.uucp (Joseph S. D. Yao) Newsgroups: comp.std.unix Subject: Re: tar or cpio? Message-ID: <8023@ut-sally.UUCP> Date: Tue, 12-May-87 09:14:24 EDT Article-I.D.: ut-sally.8023 Posted: Tue May 12 09:14:24 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 15-May-87 01:07:04 EDT References: <8001@ut-sally.UUCP> <8006@ut-sally.UUCP> Sender: std-unix@ut-sally.UUCP Reply-To: jsdy@hadron.uucp (Joseph S. D. Yao) Organization: Hadron, Inc., Fairfax, VA Lines: 25 Approved: jsq@sally.utexas.edu (Moderator, John Quarterman) Summary: cpio pre-dates tar. (not an argument for)