[mbackup-devel] more tar stuff and task hand off.

[James O'K. <jo...@mi...>]

I did some more hacking on the tar module last night. I now have it so
that it merges the input files into a single file. GNU tar will untar it
but it seems that GNU tar assumes something about the ordering of the
files and directories inside the archive. Given a directory like this:


dir1/
    file1
    file2
    dir2/
        file3
        file4
dir3/
    file5
    file6
file7
file8

GNU tar expects the files to be in this order: file7, file8, dir1, file1,
file2, dir2, file3, file4, dir3, file5, file6 (files then directories)
Because of the way I walk the directory tree, I get them in this order:
dir1, dir2, file3, file4, file1, file2, dir3, file5, file6, file7, file8
(directories, then files)

Then I GNU un-tar something I created with my tar, it only extracts:
dir1/
    dir2/ 
dir3/
    file5
    file6


What I'd really like to happen is someone else take another look at the
plain_reader.c module and rework it's logic so that it returns the
directories in the order that is better suited for tar. If anyone
volunteers I can give them some help. Tell your friends. Tell your family.
Use it as an excuse to talk to that cute redhead in your calculus class.

-james