Mantis - star
Viewing Issue Advanced Details
ID: Category: Severity: Reproducibility: Date Submitted: Last Update:
278 packaging minor always 2004-03-05 13:06 2009-04-05 13:24
Reporter: oscar Platform:  
Assigned To: joerg OS:  
Priority: normal OS Version:  
Status: closed Product Version:  
Product Build: Resolution: open  
Projection: none      
ETA: none Fixed in Version:  
Summary: 0000278: /opt/csw/bin/tar syntax incompatible with /usr/bin/tar
Description: /opt/csw/bin/tar is a symlink to /opt/csw/bin/star

If user\'s path has /opt/csw/bin before /usr/bin,
commands/scripts that use the syntax \"tar -[xct]...\"
break with \"Bad Option\" error message.

Sun\'s tar and gnu tar have always allow the dash \'-\'
in the tar command, even if the standard syntax is
without the dash as described in the man pages
(\"tar tf filename\" instead of \"tar -tf filename\")
Steps To Reproduce:
Additional Information: Suggested to remove the tar -> star symlink for
compatibility.
Relationships
Attached Files:
Issue History
Date Modified Username Field Change
2009-04-05 13:24 joerg Note Added: 0005892
2009-04-05 13:24 joerg Status assigned => closed
2009-04-05 13:24 joerg Description Updated
2009-04-05 13:24 joerg Additional Information Updated

Notes
(0000342)
joerg   
2004-03-08 06:38   
General rule from the POSIX standard: never rely on a command line syntax
that works by accident and not because it has been documented.
The reason why star behaves this way is to prevent people from \"converting\"
valuable files into tar archives by accident. Star behaves this way since
1985. Either don\'t concat the \'f\' option with the onther options
or symlink /opt/csw/bin/tar to /opt/csw/bin/suntar. The suntar command
has been designed to be as close to Sun\'s tar as possible. The same
is true for the gnutar command from the star package.
(0003950)
james   
2006-09-22 11:28   
star no longer linked to tar, please close issue.
(0005892)
joerg   
2009-04-05 13:24   
fixed long ago