2021-07-04 07:21:08 +0100, Stephane Chazelas via austin-group-l at The Open
Group:
[...]
> Note that the equivalent --transform in the GNU implementation
> of tar lets you specify whether to apply the transformation to
> {sym,hard}links or not with flags.
[...]
Actually, libarchive's bsdtar supports the same rshRSH flags for
its -s option.
That may where the idea comes from. The s flag was added
earlier in 2008, actually based on NetBSD's pax (added in tar
and pax in 2007 see
https://gnats.netbsd.org/cgi-bin/query-pr-single.pl?number=35257,
not documented in pax until 2019), but with a reverse meaning:
the flag *suppresses* the substitution on symlink targets!
libarchive switched to GNU style rhsRHS in 2011.
So we do have prior art for pax -s, but unfortunatly
incompatible with bsdtar -s or gnutar --transform.
I don't know if NetBSD have switched to libarchive for their tar
yet, but if/when they do, they'd have a problem that the meaning
of the s flag would change.
--
Stephane
