pax(1) unable to understand binary packages format

[Anthony Mallet <anthony.mallet%laas.fr@localhost>]

Hi all,

I recently noticed that our pax(1) is unable to understand "POSIX
extended attributes" that are present in binary packages archives.

This is probably so since the addition of:
	archive_write_set_format_pax_restricted(archive);
	archive_write_set_options(archive, "hdrcharset=BINARY");
in build.c of pkg_create(1) which was introduced in ~2017.

I know that our tar(1) is fine, since it also uses libarchive, and I'm
also aware of wip/paxmirabilis that provides a great replacement for
our pax but I was wondering if there are any plans to improve /bin/pax
in the future?

As a side-question, I was also wondering if we are not missing
something in pkg_admin or pkg_add that would just decompress the raw
archive of a binary package, including meta-data files. Something in
the spirit of `dpkg -x pkg.deb /destdir`. That's actually the
reason why I'm currently fighting with pax :)

Do you think it would be a useful addition? Maybe I could work on this
if that's deemed interesting by the community.

Best,
Anthony