tar-1.13: invalid tape length problem

[Gratien D'haese (Hewlett-Packard)]

Hi,

I'm running a linux box (SuSe 6.2 with kernel 2.2.18pre16).

I am not sure if I stumble over a problem or a feature with GNU tar
v1.13.

I'm trying to understand multi-volume archives which seems to work fine
with tar-1.12, but fails with tar-1.13 with an error "invalid tape
length". See included test output.
By the way, the tar version of Suse is also version 1.12 and behaves in
the same way as the one I compiled (1.12 t.i.).

address@hidden:~/src/recovery/tar-1.12/src > ./tar -M
--tape-length=10000  --info-script=/tmp/move_it --volno-file=/tmp/volno
-cf /tmp/lin.tar /usr/src/linux
-2.2.18pre16/
./tar: Removing leading `/' from absolute path names in the archive
2
3
4

address@hidden:~/src/recovery/tar-1.12/src > cd ../../tar-1.13/src
address@hidden:~/src/recovery/tar-1.13/src > ./tar -M
--tape-length=10000  --info-script=/tmp/move_it --volno-file=/tmp/volno
-cf /tmp/lin.tar /usr/src/linux-2.2.18pre16/
./tar: Invalid tape length
Try `./tar --help' for more information.  

Please can you confirm this behaviour. Checking the tar.c sources shows
me that the case L is different between the 2 versions which explains
the different behaviour (I think).

Furthermore, a second question related the multi-volume and compression:
I could not find in the documentation a valuable explanation why
compression is not allowed in combination with multi-volume archives.
Personally, I feel it should be possible as each archive made by
multi-volume is an independent archive on itself.
Please can someone explain it to me (and update the documentation as
well to avoid others to ask the same question).

With the kindest regards (a tar lover),
Gratien D'haese

PS: my project mkCDrec stands or falls with GNU tar (and a correct
behaviour across multiple platforms). See http://mkcdrec.ota.be/ for
more info.