[BusyBox] tar behavior

[David Douthitt]

Erik Andersen wrote:
> 
> On Mon Apr 09, 2001 at 05:58:03PM -0500, David Douthitt wrote:
> > Given a tar file created in the following way:
> >
> > tar cvf bin.tar /bin
> >
> > ...and extracted in the following manner...
> >
> > cd /tmp
> > tar xvf bin.tar
> >
> > ...I would expect to find it extracting the following:
> >
> > /bin/xxxx
> > /bin/yyyy
> > /bin/zzzz
> >
> > **HOWEVER** it would seem that GNU tar does NOT do this:
> >
> > bin/xxxx
> > bin/yyyy
> > bin/zzzz
> >
> > ...even though every UNIX book from the beginning of time has told new
> > tar users that these were absolute paths.  I've created a patch to
> > "fix" this to bring back the actual UNIX behavior.  I can just imagine
> > GNU tar broke more than a few backup scripts.
> >
> > I know busybox is using GNU behavior, but what if that breaks UNIX
> > behavior?
> 
> The problem is that traditional UNIX behavior is IMHO broken in
> my opinion (and in the opinion of the GNU tar authors).
> 
> I would be willing to accept a patch to add -P, which is what GNU
> tar uses to force using absolute paths...

What about a patch to implement the "broken" :-) behavior?  I've one,
but it should be mind-numbingly simple to implement.

I don't mean it as a "fix" but rather as something like
BB_FEATURE_TAR_UNIX_ABSOLUTE_PATHS ....since I realize that
standardization is good, and GNU is a good target as any - however, it
would appear that GNU and UNIX differ.  Too bad standardizing on UNIX
System V or something couldn't have been the same thing.