zip (was: Re: Disk archival techniques)

[der Mouse]

>> So, to fan the flames, what's wrong with tar?
> TAR doesn't deal gracefully with non-ASCII filename encodings (or
> otherwise unconventional names, like spaces in the filename),

This may be a problem with some implementations; it is not a problem
with the format.  (The non-ASCII bit I'm not sure of; I certainly can't
think of anything that would prevent non-ASCII filenames from working.
And spaces in the filename the format has no problem with - though
there are a depressing number of broken tar implementations out there;
see Elizabeth Zwicky's little piece about torture-testing backup
programs.  As a minor plug, my tar gets the Zwicky tests about as right
as possible, I believe.)

> My point at the beginning of the thread was that I don't think
> archive programs should be damned simply because they run on a
> certain platform.

True.  But I *do* think it reasonable to damn an archiver because it
runs *only* on a certain platform - especially if the format itself is
closed enough to preclude implementations on other platforms.

Note that I do not claim that any of the archivers mentioned by name
upthread fit this description.  The few of them that I know do not, but
I don't know about the rest.

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