tar .vs. cpio - (nf)

[adm at cbneb.UUCP]

#R:ucbopal:-19800:cbnap:27300004:000:579
cbnap!whp    Aug 14 09:36:00 1984

>>It isn't really very hard:
>>	tar <options> `find ...`
>>
>>Accepting file names on the command line is the Unix convention.
>>    Barry Margolin
>
>No.  It may be the Unix convention but it is not useful for dumping large
>numbers of files (like when doing a backup).  There is a limit on how large
>an argument list can be passed to a program.

I don't know about BSD UNIX, but in sys V you can always use:
	find <options> |xargs tar <tar options>

(xargs is a program that reads stdin, constructs and executes a proper
command line, and repeats until eof is found on stdin)