Tar - max filename length 100; why ?

[George Robbins]

In article <3549 at syma.sussex.ac.uk> jeremym at syma.sussex.ac.uk (Jeremy Maris) writes:
> 
> From the tar manual entry
> 	 The limit on file name length is 100 characters.
> 
> Is this an artificial limitation ? Trying to tar a CAP filesystem causes
> real problems, eg

The traditional tar header format only allows 100 positions for the file
name.  If this is changed, then resulting archives are less useful as a
least common denominator interchange media.

The alternative is to use dump(8) if the intent is for backup purposes or
cpio(1) if you need to exchange data with other than BSD derived systems.

-- 
George Robbins - now working for,     uucp:   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr
but no way officially representing:   domain: grr at cbmvax.commodore.com
Commodore, Engineering Department     phone:  215-431-9349 (only by moonlite)