RFC: bsdtar in 5.3

Oliver Eikemeier eikemeier at fillmore-labs.com
Sat Jul 3 05:02:13 PDT 2004


Tim Kientzle wrote:

> I would like to make bsdtar the default
> FreeBSD system tar for -CURRENT within
> the next week or so.
>
> That should give it broad enough usage
> over the next couple of months to prove
> that it's ready for 5-STABLE.
>
> My plan:
>
>   * Make /usr/bin/tar default to a symlink
>     to /usr/bin/bsdtar as soon as possible.
>     (Currently, it defaults to /usr/bin/gtar
>     unless you build WITH_BSDTAR.)
>
>   * Leave /usr/bin/gtar in the base system
>     through the 5.x cycle.
>
>   * For 6.0, remove /usr/bin/gtar and rename
>     /usr/bin/bsdtar to /usr/bin/tar.
>
> Any objections, suggestions, or comments?

I support making bsdtar the default, and plan to integrate libtar into 
the package tools.

Are there any plans to do an security audit of bsdtar? This may be an 
important issue, since tar is often used running as root to unpack 
downloaded archives.

-Oliver



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