GNU-tar vs dump(1)

[John F. Haugh II]

In article <11 at estinc.UUCP> fnf at estinc.UUCP (Fred Fish) writes:
>The problem with archive space consumed can be eliminated by compressing
>(LZW) sparse files during the archive process.  This can be done totally
>transparently to the user. The example 100Mb file compresses to about 200Kb.

This problem and others can be solved by telling GNU-tar about the file
system.  There is no reason a system utility shouldn't be aware of the
system layout.

How many CPU years are going to be wasted LZW'ing all those sparce blocks
when a little file system knowelege would have saved us all that grief?
Write the code once and be done with it.
-- 
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