Hubert Feyrer wrote:
> In article <1123597920.12050.240299269@webmail.messagingengine.com> you wrote:
>> My Macintosh comes with Bzip2, GNU Tar, and InfoZIP. Any thoughts on
>> which tool would be best for this purpose?
> 
> bzip2 is just for (single) file compression
> GNU tar is probably ok

GNU tar is almost certainly the most portable format around, although 
old-timers might use cpio instead.  :-)

> I don't know InfoZIP
> 
> If it's there, you could also try pax, which is covered by SUSv3 and at 
> least present on NetBSD. It should be able to write multiple formats.

Be a little careful with pax: it has a nasty habit of overwriting or breaking 
symlinks unless you feed it the right options.  Unfortunately, Apple uses pax 
for their graphical package management (ie, Installer.app), resulting in:

http://www.stepwise.com/Articles/Technical/Packages/InstallerOnX.html

-- 
-Chuck