Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin,comp.unix.misc,alt.os.linux,alt.sys.sun,bln.comp.sun,bln.comp.unix,comp.os.linux.development.apps,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.sys.hp.apps,comp.sys.hp.misc,comp.sys.sgi.admin,comp.sys.sgi.apps,comp.sys.sgi.misc,comp.sys.sun.admin,comp.sys.sun.apps,comp.sys.sun.misc,comp.unix.aix,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.solaris,de.comp.os.linux.misc,de.comp.os.unix,linux.dev.admin,linux.dev.apps,maus.os.linux,maus.os.linux68k,maus.os.unix,uk.comp.os.linux Subject: Star-1.4 source has been released *************** Please have a look at the German open Source Center BerliOS at www.berlios.de BerliOS will continue to support free hosting of cryptography projects even when US laws change and don't allow to host cryptography projects in the USA. Also look at sourcewell.berlios.de, the first Open Source announcement service that itself is implemented as Open Source project. *************** Star is the fastest tar archiver for UNIX Star has many improvements compared to other tar implementations (including gnu tar). See below for a short description of the highlight of star. Star is located on: ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/unix/star If there will be no bug reports, this will become the next "stable" release "star-1.4". Changes since star-1.4a25: *** Fixed problems with files that are close to the maximum file size: - better tarblock() macro that avoids off_t overflows - Try to avoid problems while reading files when off+amt < 0 or off+amt > size. - Try to avoid problems with the Solaris ioctl _FIOAI when off+amt < 0 or off+amt > size. /*--------------------------------------------------------------------------*/ Hints for using extended POSIX.1-2001 headers: See README.posix-2001 /*--------------------------------------------------------------------------*/ Revision history (short) 1982 First version on UNOS (extract only) 1985 Port to UNIX (fully functional version) 1985 Added pre Posix method of handling special files/devices 1986 First experiments with fifo as external process. 1993 Remote tape access 1993 diff option 1994 Fifo with shared memory integrated into star 1994 Very long filenames and sparse files 1994 Gnutar and Ustar(Posix.1-1988) handling added 1994 Xstar format (extended Posix.1-1988) defined and introduced 1995 Ported to many platforms 1999 Support for Win32 (Cygwin) 1999 base 256 support to overcome limitation with octal fields 2001 Large file support 2001 Support for POSIX.1-2001 extended headers 2001 Support for ACLs in POSIX.1-2001 extended headers Supported platforms: Virtually any! Known to work: SunOS 4.x, Solaris (SunOS 5.x), Linux, HP-UX, DG/UX, IRIX, AIX, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, OSF-1, True-64, BeOS, Apollo Domain/OS, Next-STep, OS/2, SCO-openserver, SCO-unixware, Cygwin (Win32), Sony NewsOS, BSDi (BSD/OS), QNX, Apple Rhapsody, MacOS X Joerg ------------------------------------------------------------- Star is the fastest known implementation of a tar archiver. Star is able to make backups with more than 12MB/s if the disk and tape drive support such a speed. This is more than double the speed that ufsdump will get. Ampex got 13.5 MB/s with their new DLT tape drive. Ufsdump got a maximum speed of about 6MB/s with the same hardware. Star development started 1982, development is still in progress. The current version of star is stable and I never did my backups with other tools than star. Its main advantages over other tar implementations are: fifo - keeps the tape streaming. This gives you faster backups than you can achieve with ufsdump, if the size of the filesystem is > 1 GByte. pattern matcher - for a convenient user interface (see manual page for more details). To archive/extract a subset of files. sophisticated diff - user tailorable interface for comparing tar archives against file trees This is one of the most interesting parts of the star implementation. no namelen limitation - Pathnames up to 1024 Bytes may be archived. (The same limitation applies to linknames) This limit may be expanded in future without changing the method to record long names. deals with all 3 times - stores/restores all 3 times of a file (even creation time) may reset access time after doing backup The 3 files are supported in second granularity if one of the older star archive format is used and in sub-second granularity (nanoseconds) if the POSIX.1-2001 extensions are used. does not clobber files - more recent copies on disk will not be clobbered from tape This may be the main advantage over other tar implementations. This allows automatically repairing of corruptions after a crash & fsck (Check for differences after doing this with the diff option). automatic byte swap - star automatically detects swapped archives and transparently reads them the right way automatic format detect - star automatically detects several common archive formats and adopts to them. Supported archive types are: Old tar, gnu tar, ansi tar, star. automatic checksum detect - star automatically detects and handles archives that use signed checksum. Although this has always been wrong, many old tar implementations create signed checksums. automatic compression detect - star automatically detects whether the archive is compressed. If it has been compressed with a compression program that is compatible to decompression with "gzip" or "bzip2", star automatically activates decompression. fully ansi compatible - Star is fully ANSI/Posix 1003.1 compatible. See README.otherbugs for a complete description of bugs found in other tar implementations. Have a look at the manual page, it is included in the distribution. Pople who like to switch to star and used to use gnutar before should read the file STARvsGNUTAR Author: Joerg Schilling Seestr. 110 D-13353 Berlin Germany Email: joerg@schily.isdn.cs.tu-berlin.de, js@cs.tu-berlin.de schilling@fokus.gmd.de Please mail bugs and suggestions to me.