libpax?

[Wolfgang Jährling]

Hi there!

I don't know if anyone has ever contacted you before in this regard
(from the mainling list archive, it seems nobody did).

I got a very exciting idea.  You would benefit greatly from the
extremely large userbase of the Hurd by doing a pax library, so that we
can easiely write a tar file system for the Hurd. :P

But, em, seriously: We will implement a tar file system for the GNU
operating system (sometimes called GNU/Hurd) sooner or later anyway, as
this is a much requested feature (I know two people who said they're
interested in developing it, while of course I'm not sure if they'll
actually do it eventually) and sharing the code between the normal
program and the file system by putting it in a library seems like a good
idea.  Thus I want to ask if there is any chance that the archive
handling stuff will be put in a library.  Another variant is to make
tarfs an optional part of paxutils that will only build on GNU (which
might be a good idea anyway), thus one would be able to share the code
easiely anyway, and a library would not be strictly needed.  I'd like to
hear which variant you prefer.

I feel that the resulting possibillity to implement the feature
described above would give GNU yet another advantage over non-free
systems.  And GNU is supposed to be superior, not only on the moral
level, but also on the technical level, is it? :)

Cheers,
GNU/Wolfgang

-- 
Wolfgang Jährling  <address@hidden>  \\  http://stdio.cjb.net/
Debian GNU/Hurd user && Debian GNU/Linux user \\  http://www.gnu.org/
The Hurd Hacking Guide: http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hacking-guide/
["We're way ahead of you here. The Hurd has always been on the    ]
[ cutting edge of not being good for anything." -- Roland McGrath ]