Port of gnu tar to VMS

[Pitcher, Steve (OpenVMS Eng (ZKO))]

Hi.  I'm currently working on a port of GNU TAR to the VMS operating system 
(OpenVMS).  This is intended to run under the GNV package (see 
http://gnv.sourceforge.net).  GNV provides a BASH shell and utilities under 
VMS.  

This is different from VMStar, which is mentioned in the PORTS file.  VMStar 
works under DCL (VMS' *shell*).  This port of GNU TAR is intended to run under 
the BASH shell, provided by GNV.  As such, it should look pretty much just like 
tar on any Unix system.  Recent releases of VMS include a CRTL and other 
enhancements which provide a very Unix-like environment for applications.  This 
project relies on this Unix-like environment.

Currently I have tar more or less working, and am planning on including it with 
our next GNV kit.  VMS doesn't support the fork() system call, and I still need 
to deal with that... But otherwise, it seems pretty good, and is a worthwhile 
addition to our GNV kit.

I do have several source edits.  Perhaps surprisingly few.  Rather than 
maintain my own copy of GNU TAR sources for VMS, I'd like to inquire about 
conditionalizing these, and checking them into the GNU TAR source pool.

- stp