earliest version featuring this support that I was able to find was 1.09,
released in November, 1990. The format introduced back then is called
@dfn{old GNU} sparse format and in spite of the fact that its design
-contained many flaws, it was the only format @GNUTAR{} supported
+contained many flaws, it was the only format @GNUTAR{} supported
until version 1.14 (May, 2004), which introduced initial support for
sparse archives in @acronym{PAX} archives (@pxref{posix}). This
-format was not free from design flows, either and it was subsequently
+format was not free from design flaws, either and it was subsequently
improved in versions 1.15.2 (November, 2005) and 1.15.92 (June,
-2006).
+2006).
In addition to GNU sparse format, @GNUTAR{} is able to read and
extract sparse files archived by @command{star}.
@cindex sparse formats, Old GNU
@cindex Old GNU sparse format
-The format introduced some time around 1990 (v. 1.09). It was
+The format introduced in November 1990 (v. 1.09) was
designed on top of standard @code{ustar} headers in such an
unfortunate way that some of its fields overwrote fields required by
POSIX.
@end multitable
Each of @code{sparse_header} object at offset 386 describes a single
-data chunk. It has the following structure:
+data chunk. It has the following structure:
@multitable @columnfractions 0.10 0.10 0.20 0.60
@headitem Offset @tab Size @tab Data type @tab Contents
@multitable @columnfractions 0.10 0.10 0.20 0.20 0.40
@headitem Offset @tab Size @tab Name @tab Data type @tab Contents
@item 0 @tab 21 @tab sp @tab @code{sparse_header} @tab
-(21 entires) File map.
+(21 entries) File map.
@item 504 @tab 1 @tab isextended @tab Bool @tab @code{1} if an
extension sparse header follows, or @code{0} otherwise.
@end multitable
@table @code
@vrindex GNU.sparse.size, extended header variable
@item GNU.sparse.size
-Real size of the stored file
+Real size of the stored file;
@item GNU.sparse.numblocks
@vrindex GNU.sparse.numblocks, extended header variable
-Number of blocks in the sparse map
+Number of blocks in the sparse map;
@item GNU.sparse.offset
@vrindex GNU.sparse.offset, extended header variable
-Offset of the data block
+Offset of the data block;
@item GNU.sparse.numbytes
@vrindex GNU.sparse.numbytes, extended header variable
-Size of the data block
+Size of the data block.
@end table
The latter two variables repeat for each data block, so the overall
@smallexample
@group
-GNU.sparse.size=@var{size}
-GNU.sparse.numblocks=@var{numblocks}
+GNU.sparse.size=@var{size}
+GNU.sparse.numblocks=@var{numblocks}
repeat @var{numblocks} times
- GNU.sparse.offset=@var{offset}
- GNU.sparse.numbytes=@var{numbytes}
+ GNU.sparse.offset=@var{offset}
+ GNU.sparse.numbytes=@var{numbytes}
end repeat
@end group
@end smallexample
@code{GNU.sparse.numbytes} are conflicting with the POSIX specs.
@item
-Attempting to extract such archives using a third-party @command{tar}s
-results in extraction of sparse files in @emph{compressed form}. If
+Attempting to extract such archives using a third-party's @command{tar}
+results in extraction of sparse files in @emph{condensed form}. If
the @command{tar} implementation in question does not support POSIX
format, it will also extract a file containing extension header
attributes. This file can be used to expand the file to its original
@item GNU.sparse.map
@vrindex GNU.sparse.map, extended header variable
Map of non-null data chunks. It is a string consisting of
-comma-separated values "@var{offset},@var{size}[,@var{offset-1},@var{size-1}...]"
+comma-separated values "@var{offset},@var{size}[,@var{offset-1},@var{size-1}...]"
@end table
To address the 2nd problem, the @code{name} field in @code{ustar}
The resulting @code{GNU.sparse.map} string can be @emph{very} long.
Although POSIX does not impose any limit on the length of a @code{x}
-header variable, this possibly can confuse some tars.
+header variable, this possibly can confuse some @command{tar}s.
@node PAX 1
@appendixsubsec PAX Format, Version 1.0
variable @code{GNU.sparse.realsize}.
The sparse map itself is stored in the file data block, preceding the actual
-file data. It consists of a series of octal numbers of arbitrary length, delimited
+file data. It consists of a series of octal numbers of arbitrary length, delimited
by newlines. The map is padded with nulls to the nearest block boundary.
The first number gives the number of entries in the map. Following are map entries,
each one consisting of two numbers giving the offset and size of the
data block it describes.
-The format is designed in such a way that non-posix aware tars and tars not
+The format is designed in such a way that non-posix aware @command{tar}s and @command{tar}s not
supporting @code{GNU.sparse.*} keywords will extract each sparse file
in its condensed form with the file map prepended and will place it
into a separate directory. Then, using a simple program it would be
possible to expand the file to its original form even without @GNUTAR{}.
@xref{Sparse Recovery}, for the detailed information on how to extract
sparse members without @GNUTAR{}.
-
+
projects / tar / blobdiff