Re: [Bug-tar] [patch v3] Bug / question in tar

[Pavel Raiskup]

On Thursday, March 13, 2014 09:35:26 Paul Eggert wrote:
> On 03/13/2014 01:21 AM, Pavel Raiskup wrote:
> >> We could detect that archive contents are coming from terminal input and
> >> fail immediately (IIRC tar waits indefinitely ATM until it's input is cut
> >> by ctrl+d or it is killed).
> > I meant something like the patch attached, could you please consider?
> >
> > I tried to write testcase for this and I failed to find proper 'script'
> > alternative tool among coreutils, is there some?  I could rewrite it then.
>
> This sort of thing would seem to run counter to the GNU coding 
> standards, which say that the behavior a program should not depend on 
> the type of device it is used with.
> 
> http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/User-Interfaces.html

Ah, truth.  Could I convince you to push some fix which would refuse just
*reading* archive from terminal (updated patch attached)?  Strictly
speaking, GNU Coding Guidelines are talking about program _output_, not
about input (IIRC the standard, this is intentional and I very agree with
that part).  Anyway, the 'tar -x BIG_FILE' usecase is the most serious one
I tried to avoid - it may cost users very expensive *seconds* of their
lives during trying to recognize what is (not) happening in background.

Thanks for considering,
Pavel

0001-tar-fail-if-archive-comes-directly-from-terminal.patch
Description: Text Data