Subject: Re: detect pax version (was Re: CVS commit: pkgsrc/cad/fastcap)
To: Jeremy C. Reed <reed@reedmedia.net>
From: Dan McMahill <dmcmahill@NetBSD.org>
List: tech-pkg
Date: 03/20/2005 07:28:27
On Sat, Mar 19, 2005 at 07:23:17PM -0800, Jeremy C. Reed wrote:
> On Sat, 19 Mar 2005, Dan McMahill wrote:
> 
> > Log Message:
> > use GNU tar to extract.  pax fails on the distfile.  Lets this pkg
> > extract and build again after being broken for a long time.
> 
> It seems like we have several issues like this. (And I have also had
> several problems with older pax.)
> 
> Should we (can we?) detect the version of pax available? It seems like we
> should use the native tar/pax if it is acceptable. And if not, then
> clearly complain -- maybe suggest to the pkgsrc builder to define some
> make variable?

I guess you could do 'tar --version' to see if tar is gnu tar.  I'd rather
not make the pkgsrc builder define a variable to make things work.

On non-netbsd systems we install pax as part of the bootstrap don't we?
So we should have this issue everywhere.  I guess I don't feel too bad
about causing gnu tar to be installed.  It's pretty lightweight.

-Dan

--