On 12/18/05, Steinar H. Gunderson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Sun, Dec 18, 2005 at 08:23:56PM +0100, Olaf van der Spek wrote: > > Why would that stop working if you switch compression schemes? > > I guess tar is coded to use gzip with -z and bzip2 with -j, but why is > > there no generic way to add coders/decoders (codecs) to tar (and other > > applications that wish to use compression filters)? > > Get real. gzip is probably understood by 99.9% of all installed UNIX systems > in the world, and you cannot possibly hope to get anywhere near that for a > relatively obscure alternative. (The -j flag to tar is a Debian specific > extension, BTW -- I'm not sure if the -z flag is a GNU-specific extension, > but it wouldn't surprise me.)
I guess what I'm asking is, why are tar and other applications using gzip instead of a generic library that handles all compression/decompression and can be easily extended.
