Hi HP3000-L,

Permit me to violate netiquette by making a public reply to a private
e-mail...

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gavin Scott [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2000 4:13 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: RE: [HP3000-L] tar beta patch MPELX37A for 6.0 now available
>
>
> Hi Mark,
>
> is there a complete list of changes available (if so, I think
> it would be
> worth posting to 3000-L)?

From the patch text:

**********
External Symptoms, Cause, Fix Description
========================================= Multiple fixes for the TAR
Utility.
1. Address problem with TAR overwriting files but maintaining
   original file record format.
2. Address problem with TAR getting confused with MPE files
   having large numbers of user labels.
3. Address problem with one byte record truncation for MPE FA files.
4. Address problem with extracting symlink under certain conditions.
5. Address problem when UNTARring over an existing file but leaving
   existing attributes in place.
6. Address problem with UNTAR using excessive disk space when
   extracting small files.
**********

But since these are very general descriptions, interested people can see my
test scripts used to duplicate these problems:

        http://www.bixby.org/mark/csy/hallofshame.tar.Z

In the above archive, there's a separate subdirectory for each problem.  The
"blockeof" problem was determined to be a feature, not a bug.  The
"corrupt20k" and "trunclast" problems are still under investigation.  All of
the other problems have been fixed by MPELX37A.

> Are you aware of any changes
> which, as a side
> effect, will cause compatibility problems for people using
> TAR to distribute
> files?

The main side-effect is that after you install this patch, you will be able
to rip out alot of workaround code you had to do both before and after an
untar to clean things up.  :-)  Of course, leaving the workarounds in effect
will still be OK after this patch is installed; they'll just be unnecessary.

The tar p option actually restores permissions reliably now, even for
directories that already exist and are being replaced.  This is the
"direxists" problem.  Also, if you were depending on default umask-based
permissions despite using tar p, you may be surprised.

- Mark B. (who thanks CSY Bangalore for all of the hard work they've put in
on these problems)

> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
> > Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2000 3:51 PM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: [HP3000-L] tar beta patch MPELX37A for 6.0 now available
> >
> >
> > Hi HP3000-L,
> >
> > Beta patch MPELX37A is now available to fix numerous tar problems
> > on MPE/iX
> > 6.0.  If you use tar, you definitely want to try this
> patch!  A separate
> > patch will be coming soon for 6.5.
> >
> > This patch simply replaces the entire TAR.HPBIN.SYS file.
> >
> > Two additional tar problems are still under investigation
> (SRs 8606130202
> > and 5003459925) and have not been fixed by MPELX37A.
> >
> > - Mark B.
> >
>