>> Subject: Re: pax-as-tar extract to stdout patch

>> Please commit this.  (It makes things like the distrib/cdrom
>> Makefile a lot simpler to deal with for instance as it extracts
>> one-off files from the tarballs for some cd images).
> I'd very much prefer to see the src/distrib tools make use only of
> 'pax' (with it's truly _standard_ command-line interface), and I see
> no reason why temporary directories cannot be safely and easily used
> in this situation.

(1) This, even if everyone entirely agreed with it, would not be a
reason to not provide the option; it would be but a reason to avoid use
of it in certain places.

(2) You think temporary directories can always be used?  Are you
volunteering to supply the necessary disk space to everyone who needs
it?  I added extract-to-stdout to my tar a long time ago, and find
myself not uncommonly using it in a pipeline such as

	gunzip < ...tar.gz | tar ... | gunzip | tar ...

to extract a file from a tar canister held within a larger archive;
it's not unusual for the machine to have insufficient disk space to
hold the intermediate archive.  The archives in CD images tend to be
large; it would not surprise me if similar remarks applied there.

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