[task #15699] Unified format for software source code archival

[Antonio Diaz Diaz]

Follow-up Comment #1, task #15699 (project reproduce):

It is unfortunate that GNU tar still defaults to "gnu" format[1] because the
features provided by the "gnu" format were implemented in a way incompatible
with other archive formats. In particular the "gnu" format is incompatible
with the two POSIX formats (ustar and pax(posix)).

[1] <http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual/html_node/Formats.html>

IMO the best format for source tarballs is ustar because it is standard, it is
simple, and it usually provides all the features required. Few source tarballs
include files with names longer than 256 bytes or sizes larger than 8 GiB.

For the few source tarballs requiring some feature beyond what ustar can
provide, the pax format may be used. I do not recommend using pax by default
because it is extensible and feature-rich, and therefore less future-proof
than ustar (which is a subset of pax).

The pax format is also not as densely packed as might be possible[2], which
makes desirable the development of a new format with a fixed-field layout
similar to ustar.

[2] <http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/pax.html>

Therefore, my choice of tar options to run GNU tar as future-proof as possible
is "tar -c -Hustar --owner=root --group=root".


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