Re: Feature Request: CPIO option --no-trailer

[Rick van Rein]

Hello,

This question got no response, possibly because I posted it on 30-12; is
it a good idea to add this option?

Thanks,
 -Rick

> I am using CPIO (with optional GZ) for its useful feature that the
> trailer can be cut off, and the archives can simply be concatenated.
> That is useful for Linux initial ramdisks, but also for the build system
> I am working on.
> 
> 
> I have been kludging this into code like this, which happens to work on
> Debian but not when I rebuilt CPIO on OpenWRT:
> 
> https://github.com/arpa2/mkhere/blob/fd41733a0e2daeb93ee088846f78255c92f5efff/lib/stdlib#L79-L82
> 
> Ideally, I would use a --no-trailer option to CPIO instead of doing
> 
> https://github.com/arpa2/mkhere/blob/fd41733a0e2daeb93ee088846f78255c92f5efff/lib/stdlib#L168-L171
> 
> 
> In "cpio -o", --no-trailer would avoid appending the TRAILER.
> In "cpio -i", --no-trailer wouldn't mind the missing TRAILER
>               but likely check the proper finishing point.
> 
> 
> Interestingly, when GZIP is applied to the CPIO parts, it could be used
> to append .CPIO.GZ files made with --no-trailer too!  And that pattern
> is also useful for Linux' initial ramdisks.  (You cannot mix GZIP with
> non-GZIP though.)
> 
> 
> Would you agree that this adds value to GNU CPIO?