tar and trailing slash for dirnames.

[Han Boetes <han_(_at_)_mijncomputer_(_dot_)_nl>]

Hi,

If I make a tarball with tar I get a slightly different result with tar
and gtar: The difference is the trailing / for the dirname `foo.'

~% mkdir foo
~% touch foo/bar
~% tar czf 1.tgz foo
~% gtar czf 2.tgz foo

~% tar tzf 1.tgz
foo
foo/bar
~% tar tzf 2.tgz
foo
foo/bar

~% gtar tzf 1.tgz
foo
foo/bar
~% gtar tzf 2.tgz
foo/
foo/bar


Now reading the sourcecode: /usr/src/bin/pax/tar.c

   /*
    * strip off any trailing slash.
    */
   if (*pt == '/') {
           *pt = '\0';
           --arcn->nlen;
   }

So it is done on purpose. But it is incompatible with gtar. And I just
happen to run into a situation where this behaviour is required, so I
would like to request the change of this behaviour. Or perhaps somebody
can enlighten me why this is the prefered behaviour.

Of course I have no say in this, I can only ask kindly.



# Han