>>>>> "John" == John F Woods <jfw@jfwhome.funhouse.com> writes:
    John> I don't know how to objectively answer "should", but:

    John> tar(1) does (and specifically tests for running as root
    John> before trying).

    John> cpio(1) does (it tries the chown and is silent if the
    John> failure is EPERM).

    John> cp(1) does if you ask for it (with -p), but is silent if it
    John> can't give you what you asked for.

    John> pax(1) "doesn't", in the sense that you have to ask for
    John> preserving uid/gid and you get warning messages if that
    John> fails for any reason.

  This is one reason I prefer pax to tar/cpio.
  If I want to untar something as root, and keep it as a root, then 
I can't do it. I didn't tar it up as root, because I didn't want to
give root to my build process, but the resulting files should be root.

   :!mcr!:            |  Network security programming, currently
   Michael Richardson | on contract with SSH IPSEC (http://www.ssh.fi/)
 WWW: mcr@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca. PGP key available.