[ On Monday, December 9, 2002 at 09:42:58 (-0200), Paulo Alexandre Pinto Pires wrote: ]
> Subject: archiving sparse files
>
> Apparently, current NetBSD tar no longer accepts the option
> "--sparse", to handle sparse files efficiently.

That's because, IIRC, it already does so by default, at least to the
best possible level.  See the comment preceding file_write() in
file_subs.c.  (since this only works on write it essentially mandates
that you compress your archives in order to achieve the best possible
efficiency).

If you really want to handle sparse files as efficiently as possible
while maintaining both archive and command-line portability to the
greatest degree possible then your best choice is to use
pkgsrc/archivers/star.

-- 
								Greg A. Woods

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