Hello Guys,

I'd like to request for a new (more recent) version of the TAR on install media (iso). I've checked SL12.0, SL13.0, SL14.1 isos and there is tar (gnu tar) 1.13.

I had interesting problem with using slackware iso as a rescue cd. Let me explain...

I have machine with Slackware 12.0 with tar 1.22 on it. I created tar.gz archive with:
I have quite long filenames and paths in this directory - over 99 characters. The archive was created without problems, and the content was OK.

Then... I created another virtual machine and booted from install dvd SL12.0 (and checked with SL13.0, SL14.1 accordingly later). I scp'ed my archive to this vm, and decompressed it with:

Everything seemed to be FINE... until i saw that my long paths/filenames were truncated to 99 characters! filenames and paths were created but broken :/ shortened.
I verfied that this is a problem with TAR on slackware iso. I decompressed archive on my source machine with 1.22 and it was OK. Then i tried with archlinux-2014.03.01-dual.iso (i686) where I found tar (gnu tar) 1.27.1 and without any surprise I could decompress my archive correctly.

So, I think it is time to refresh software on Slackware isos (even those recent) to new versions, because right now they are quite troublesome

Best regards
Janusz.

you compressed with 1.22 and it was OK, then on Slack 12.0 in virtual machine you decompressed with 1.22 and it was screwed, then you decompressed on your source (?) machine with 1.22 and it was OK?

I don't get it. If i understood right, isnt the problem somehow in the virtual machine?

May be I am too tired...

His system runs tar 1.22, all the other VMs runs tar 1.13 (stock slackware version, I guess)

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Ah, the happy merry go round! Here we go again. http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...1-13-a-721813/

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The OP may not be aware that Slackware's pkgtools are tied to tar-1.13, however, he raises an interesting point about the install environment not having the later version of tar.

Many of us rely on the install environment as a recovery tool, and should we ever need to restore from tar, it'd be nice to be able to trust it not to silently corrupt our files during extraction.

Would it be possible to mirror the tar setup of the Slackware release in the corresponding ISO image's initrd.img file? i.e.
/bin/tar
/bin/tar-1.13
/bin/tar-1.26 -> tar

At first glance the tar-1.26 executable along with librt.so and libpthread.so it appears to need don't take up that much space, though it's possible they might need some other files.

If practical, IMO that'd be a good way to go for future releases.

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I don't know how Slackware boot process is, but you can try adding a new tar
version in the /isolinux/sbootmgr/initrd.img

Or put a new tar version somewhere on the cd/dvd and a script to link it in /bin/tar
after the initrd image is loaded



edit - I did not see the GazL's post before posting, so adding a new tar version
doesn't seem so easy, you must add some libs with it.

Yes it's easy enough to add that in to the installer build script. It appears that it was my idea to wipe out the latest version of tar and symlink tar-1.13 to tar anyway (seemed optimal and efficient 6 years ago! ;-) ). I've added it to my installer to do list - Pat will most likely accept this change as it's non intrusive - although you'll only know if it appears ;-)

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Cheers Stuart.

Fair enough, and as expected.

-current's installer image now has /bin/tar as whatever the latest available version of the tar package is when the installer is created. It's currently v1.26.

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