tar format

[John Gilmore]

In article <714 at im4u.UUCP>, jsq at im4u.UUCP (John Quarterman) writes:
> The current IEEE P1003 draft standard (Draft 6) includes a data interchange
> format which is modeled after tar.  It has some extensions to the V7 one,
> including a format for directory entries on the tape which is the same
> as the one 4BSD uses:  like plain files, but with a slash on the end of
> the filename.

Hmm...my copy of Draft 6 defines a new "file type" 5 for directories,
which is incompatible with both Berkeley and V7 Unixes.  It mentions
that some systems put out tapes with these trailing-slash files, but
doesn't say whether a standard system is required to do anything
about that.  (From P1003.D6.doc:)

> Implementors should be aware that the previous file format did not include
> a mechanism to archive directory type files.  For this reason, the
> convention of using a file name which ended with a slash (/) was adopted
> to specify the archiving of a directory.

Maybe jsq is referring to a draft later than D6?