ted@braggvax.arpa (12/18/87)
Try this on 4.3BSD: cd /tmp tar cf /dev/rmt8 /usr Get the error: tar: cannot change back?: /tmp//usr: No such file or directory Sun tar and all the other tars I have used have no problem with this, but 4.3 tar seems to handle absolute path names incorrectly. Is this a known bug, with a fix? If not, I'll fix it and post the diffs. Thanks, Ted Nolan ted@braggvax.arpa
rbj@icst-cmr.arpa (Root Boy Jim) (12/30/87)
Try this on 4.3BSD: cd /tmp tar cf /dev/rmt8 /usr Get the error: tar: cannot change back?: /tmp//usr: No such file or directory Sun tar and all the other tars I have used have no problem with this, but 4.3 tar seems to handle absolute path names incorrectly. Is this a known bug, with a fix? If not, I'll fix it and post the diffs. Only a novice or a fool would use absolute pathnames in a tar command. Ted Nolan ted@braggvax.arpa (Root Boy) Jim Cottrell <rbj@icst-cmr.arpa> National Bureau of Standards Flamer's Hotline: (301) 975-5688 My CODE of ETHICS is vacationing at famed SCHROON LAKE in upstate New York!!
stpeters@dawn.steinmetz (Dick St.Peters) (12/30/87)
In article <11036@brl-adm.ARPA> rbj@icst-cmr.arpa (Root Boy Jim) writes: >Only a novice or a fool would use absolute pathnames in a tar command. "fool" is much too kind a description. > (Root Boy) Jim Cottrell <rbj@icst-cmr.arpa> > National Bureau of Standards > Flamer's Hotline: (301) 975-5688 >My CODE of ETHICS is vacationing at famed SCHROON LAKE in upstate New York!! This time of year? Your ETHICS.c has a bug in it. -- Dick St.Peters GE Corporate R&D, Schenectady, NY stpeters@ge-crd.arpa uunet!steinmetz!stpeters
mark@omepd (Mark Aitken) (01/01/88)
In article <11036@brl-adm.ARPA< rbj@icst-cmr.arpa (Root Boy Jim) writes:
< ...
<
<Only a novice or a fool would use absolute pathnames in a tar command.
<
<
< (Root Boy) Jim Cottrell <rbj@icst-cmr.arpa>
< National Bureau of Standards
< Flamer's Hotline: (301) 975-5688
Granted, but tar should not enforce that, e.g. it really is a bug in my
opinion.
They say that goto's in programming languages are bad, but I'm glad C has
them (it is MY responsibility to avoid using goto, not the language designer's).
Mark Aitken
mark@omepd.intel.comted@braggvax.arpa (01/04/88)
While I enjoy being called a fool and a novice as well as the next guy, and so deeply appreciate all the helpful responses from the net, the fact remains that 4.3 tar is BROKEN. I never implied that using absolute pathnames in tar is a politically correct or generally nice thing to do. In fact, when I found the bug, I was just using tar to generate some test traffic on a tape drive, not for anything 'useful'. However, there have been rare times when I have used absolute pathnames with tar ON PURPOSE for reasons I considered good and sufficient. The fact that a behavior I have seen from v7 onwards (and one still consistent with the manual page) no longer works I consider a BUG. (Deep breath) Now, does anyone have a fix? Ted Nolan ted@braggvax.arpa
dce@mips.UUCP (01/11/88)
In article <11091@brl-adm.ARPA> ted@braggvax.arpa writes: >While I enjoy being called a fool and a novice as well as the next guy, >and so deeply appreciate all the helpful responses from the net, the fact >remains that 4.3 tar is BROKEN. > >Now, does anyone have a fix? Try this (use patch; my line numbers will be different from yours): *** tar.c.old --- tar.c *************** *** 514,520 **** sprintf(dblock.dbuf.chksum, "%6o", checksum()); (void) writetape((char *)&dblock); } ! sprintf(newparent, "%s/%s", parent, shortname); if (chdir(shortname) < 0) { fflush(stderr); perror(shortname); --- 514,524 ---- sprintf(dblock.dbuf.chksum, "%6o", checksum()); (void) writetape((char *)&dblock); } ! if (*shortname == '/') { ! strcpy(newparent, shortname); ! } else { ! sprintf(newparent, "%s/%s", parent, shortname); ! } if (chdir(shortname) < 0) { fflush(stderr); perror(shortname); -- David Elliott dce@mips.com or {ames,prls,pyramid,decwrl}!mips!dce
adamm@encore.UUCP (Adam S. Moskowitz) (01/26/88)
Some time back, ted@braggvax posted a query about 4.3BSD tar & absolute path
names. Did this issue ever get resolved (other than by telling Ted he was a
fool for using absolute pathnames)? If so, would someone please post the fix
or the diffs or something? If not, would someone please send me a good
explaination of why it isn't broken (and therefore shouldn't be fixed :-))?
Thanx in advance.
--
Adam S. Moskowitz ...!{decvax,ihnp4,linus,necntc,talcott}!encore!adamm
"Bon-hommy," went on Eeyore gloomily. "French word meaning
bonhommy," he explained. "I'm not complaining, but There It Is."