Subject: Re: deprecating long options in tar and cpio (was: CVS commit: src)
To: Greg A. Woods <woods@most.weird.com>
From: Todd Vierling <tv@pobox.com>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 01/26/1999 08:18:33
On Sat, 23 Jan 1999, Greg A. Woods wrote:

: If GNUtar-as-tar did the warning, now, in both -current and 1.3.4, then
: just before the 1.4 branch is split off, GNU Tar could be completely
: eliminiated and tar could become simply a link to pax.  Same for cpio.

Then you have about a dozen options each which need a short option
equivalent.  --exclude, --numeric-uids, --no-recursion come to mind.  (The
latter is in gtar 1.12, and I do intend to add it to pax as soon as longopts
are there.)  You're getting rather low on letters in tar....

Exactly how does having longopts for compatibility (and the ability to have
more than 52 options) *hurt* you?

-- 
-- Todd Vierling (Personal tv@pobox.com; Bus. todd_vierling@xn.xerox.com)