> We do [need free space on md0] until someone directs pax to keep its
> temp data (permissions on extracted files) somewhere other than /tmp.

...or we use something other than pax to do the extract.  It's a tar
archive, right?  Why not use tar?

If our stock tar is too bloated for the install disks (it *is* a GNU
program; there's probably a whole Lisp engine in there or something), I
can offer my tar to the cause.  Even as it stands (i386)

[Truly-Delicious] 10> size /usr/bin/tar           
text    data    bss     dec     hex     filename
258016  8192    12740   278948  441a4   /usr/bin/tar
[Truly-Delicious] 11> size ~/.local/bin/tar
text    data    bss     dec     hex     filename
172000  4096    3478772 3654868 37c4d4  /home/mouse/.local/bin/tar
[Truly-Delicious] 12> 

and if I strip it down a little bit by removing its ability to read
filesystems directly from disk devices and lowering the maximum
blocking factor it can handle,

text    data    bss     dec     hex     filename
143328  4096    1182204 1329628 1449dc  z

With a little more effort (this was just thirty seconds' editing), the
bss could probably be shrunk drastically (allocate a few things
dynamically instead of statically).  (And yes, all of the above
executables are linked -static.)  Linking dynamically saves about 60K
on the last one of those three; this is roughly the amount that would
be saved by crunching it with all other executables.

					der Mouse

			       mouse@rodents.montreal.qc.ca
		     7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39  4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B