Re: [Bug-tar] Tar cheats when directed to /dev/null

[Phillip Susi]

On 3/25/2010 4:22 PM, Eric Blake wrote:
> To prove that this is wrong, you would have to point to a place in the
> POSIX specification that forbids similar behavior for pax(1); I cannot
> find such text.  Lacking proof that it is wrong, I agree with Sergey's
> stance that it matches the documentation, and that changing it now would
> be a mistake.

You do not need a standard to explicitly forbid something for it to be
wrong.  For instance, POSIX doesn't say anywhere that pax may not delete
half your files and rename the other half to random strings.

Show me any other utility that silently fails to perform its primary
function when you connect stdout to /dev/null.