>From: Brad Salai <bsalai@tmonline.com>
>
>There is a thing about tar that makes it slightly harder to use than it
>might otherwise be.
>
>You have to get the options in the right order,
>
>tar -zxvpf bin.tar.gz   works, but
>
>tar -zxvfp bin.tar.gz   doesn't
>
>Once you know this, only the occasional tyop causes problems, but why does
>it have to be that way?

Because "f" means "the argument immediately following the f is the
filename" not "you will see a filename some time soon, keep parsing
arguments until you get something that looks like a filename."

>As for ftp, mget is a nice idea, but it asks you to confirm that you still
>want  each file as it comes up. This makes it impossible to just get a
>collection of files, either by matching a pattern, or listing the files,
>without sitting there.

ftp> prompt off
Interactive mode off.
ftp> mget *

Cheers,
entropy

--
entropy -- it's not just a good idea, it's the second law.