Margot Miller wrote:
> Also, the format and contents of /etc/default/tar and /etc/default/star
> are different.
>
> From the star man page:
>
> /etc/default/star
> Default values can be set for the following options in
> /etc/default/star. For example: CDR_FIFOSIZE=64m
>
> STAR_FIFOSIZE
> Sets the default size of the FIFO (see also fs=#
> option).
>
> STAR_FIFOSIZE_MAX
> Sets the maximum size of the FIFO (see also fs=#
> option). Setting STAR_FIFOSIZE_MAX in
> /etc/default/star allows to overwrite global
> values from backup scripts for machines with less
> memory.
>
> archive0=
> ...
> archive7=
> Archive entries for the -[0..7] option.
>
> A correct archive?= line has 3..4 space separated
> entries. The first is the device entry (e.g.
> archive0=/dev/tape). The second is the blocking
> factor in 512 byte units. The third is the max-
> imum media size in 1024 byte units. If this entry
> contains a 0, then the media size is unlimited.
> The fourth entry is optional. If it contains a 'n'
> or a 'N', then the archive device is not a tape.
>
> Examples:
>
> Examples:
>
> archive0=/dev/tape 512 0 y
> archive1=/dev/fd0 1 1440 n
> archive2=/dev/rmt/0mbn 512 0
>
> If the default file does not need to be shared
> with the tar program from Solaris, any number may
> be used like a generic size option like bs=.
>
> Example:
>
> archive0=/dev/tape 256k 40G y
>
These appear to be fully compatible extensions to the /etc/default/tar
format. Couldn't we do the following?
1. Verify that tar is smart enough to ignore settings it doesn't
understand, including the 4th field in the archiveN value. If necessary,
fix tar so that this is true.
2. Have star use /etc/default/tar as its default file.
As an administrator, I'd be really annoyed to discover that I have to
configure the same settings in two places in order to get consistent
behavior from star and tar.
Scott
