Re: [hackers] [PATCH] tar: if first argument doesn't have a leading dash, prepend one

From: Ethan Sommer <e5ten.arch_AT_gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 18 May 2020 13:07:32 -0400

On Mon, May 18, 2020 at 10:44 AM Quentin Rameau <quinq_AT_fifth.space> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> > Dear Michael,
> >
> > > Thanks for the patch, Ethan.
> > >
> > > This patch looks fine to me, but seeing as we used to support this
> > > usage before it was reverted in [0], I'd like to see if anyone else
> > > has comments. The approach you used avoids the code duplication that
> > > may have been the motivation for its removal.
> >
> > I have objections for this patch. I don't like the old style and it's
> > horribly annoying with tools like unrar and 7z as well. I don't know
> > why the compression tools all ignore years of established command line
> > syntax, but I think we shouldn't chime in to this mad play.
>
> I agree too we shouldn't pass that in.
>
> One purpose of writing sbase is to guide people into using tools in a
> “POSIX-ly” correct manner.
> If we just let in all syntax around then it defeats that purpose.
>
Every other tar implementation I've looked at supports either both
dash-less argument, and arguments with dashes, or only dash-less
argument. sbase tar is the only tar that only supports arguments with a
dash, so to use tar as portably as possible, one has to not have a dash
with the argument, and sbase tar should be made to accept that style of
argument to fit with the more portable usage.
Received on Mon May 18 2020 - 19:07:32 CEST