🚀 go-pugleaf

I just got tar-1.11.1 from uunet.  I have been using version 1.10, till
now.  Here is a bug report, a suggestion, and some enhancements I will
get to next year.

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Bug report:

    tar -dM -L XXX

reports DATA errors on files that span multiple volumes.  Extraction
works fine, i.e., the extracted file matches exactly.

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Suggestion:

    Since written documentation is lacking, help message should be
    as useful as possible.  I suggest you change it as follows:

tar.c
687c687
< -L, --tape-length LENGTH change tapes after writing LENGTH\n\
---
> -L, --tape-length N	change tapes after writing N*1024 bytes\n\


    (there probably are other changes that could be made, I'm sure
     I'll think of them as soon as I post this email ;-)


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Future contributions:

Options I will add when I have the time:

    --extract-here

	extract files into current directory (i.e., strip all
	characters up to and including the final '/' in the filename).

    --unlink

	silently unlink file before extracting from archive.


Here's an idea I haven't worked out completely:

    When doing -xv, print the name of each file as it is extracted, but
    delay printing the final newline until the extraction of the file
    is complete.  Thus, if I do: "tar -xv foo", and foo is a large file
    in the middle of a long archive, I will know when the extraction is
    complete and I can safely kill the tar process.  (Of course, this
    change will require extra work for error messages).


If you already have any of these implemented (or plan to), let me know
and I won't bother.

Happy Xmas!

-- 
.. Steve Harris - Eaton Corp. - Beverly, MA - vsh%etnibsd@uunet.uu.net