"... there are some metadata extensions that allow this)."
Where to find these extensions? Are they portable between Linux and BSD?
The 1998 dict project included a utility called "dictzip" for random access to the contents of gzip compressed files.
Dumb question: Is it possible to create a utility or even a hack that performs "random access" into tar archives?
Example use case: the user only wants to untar a small number of selected files from a large tarball such as a source tree.
The user has tried both the "-T filelist" option and using memory file systems instead of hard disk drives.
Where to find these extensions? Are they portable between Linux and BSD?
The 1998 dict project included a utility called "dictzip" for random access to the contents of gzip compressed files.
Dumb question: Is it possible to create a utility or even a hack that performs "random access" into tar archives?
Example use case: the user only wants to untar a small number of selected files from a large tarball such as a source tree. The user has tried both the "-T filelist" option and using memory file systems instead of hard disk drives.