From ce2100661a8ecf6eab543e349382b26b37b3a2e4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "Richard M. Stallman" Date: Mon, 25 Apr 1994 23:34:17 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Comment change. --- lisp/tar-mode.el | 14 ++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+) diff --git a/lisp/tar-mode.el b/lisp/tar-mode.el index b1edbe0375b..962fb60597e 100644 --- a/lisp/tar-mode.el +++ b/lisp/tar-mode.el @@ -81,6 +81,20 @@ ;;; o Block files, sparse files, continuation files, and the various header ;;; types aren't editable. Actually I don't know that they work at all. +;;; Rationale: + +;;; Why does tar-mode edit the file itself instead of using tar? + +;;; That means that you can edit tar files which you don't have room for +;;; on your local disk. + +;;; I don't know about recent features in gnu tar, but old versions of tar +;;; can't replace a file in the middle of a tar file with a new version. +;;; Tar-mode can. I don't think tar can do things like chmod the subfiles. +;;; An implementation which involved unpacking and repacking the file into +;;; some scratch directory would be very wasteful, and wouldn't be able to +;;; preserve the file owners. + ;;; Code: (defvar tar-anal-blocksize 20 -- 2.39.5