The problem comes up in my mind exactly because it takes me so
long on a hp425t/25Mhz with 24MB memory just to un-tar 
these huge tar-files.
 
But as you said the linearity could be usefull as well!

The tar-file is analysed of its contens once and then the driver
remembers the starting points and locations of all these files.

The TAR-filesystem could be mounted in a union kind of manner so that new or
changed files are placed at first external of the tar file.
Only if one disconnects the tar file with a special option there would
be a refresh, ohterwhise the tar file is left as it was.
 
        Bye   Brusi

            by           E-Mail: ab2@inf.tu-dresden.de
                         Tel.-priv: 0351-8499347 (Germany/Dresden)
          \____

On Tue, 1 Jul 1997, Nathan Gelbard wrote:

> but being able to directly access a tar.gz file as a fs would be beautiful.
> I think one problem is that since tar files are very linear (I don't think 
> there is a 'FAT' header on it), the fs would take a long time to 'start up' 
> because it'd have to read through the whole thing before figuring out what 
> files existed in the tarball.
> 
> 	Just some thoughts,
> 		Nate