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The README implies that `tar` is "not streamable". Someone needs a history lesson on what it was originally used for...
by al2o3cr 12y ago
The README implies that `tar` is "not streamable". Someone needs a history lesson on what it was originally used for...
- FooBarWidget 12y agoTar is not streamable when compressed with gzip. 4Q supports compression on a per-file basis and thus can support streaming and compression at the same time. Zip also supports compression on a per-file basis, but it requires an index and thus is not streamable.
- falcolas 12y agoFunny, I've done plenty of gzip compressed tar streams: nc -l 7000 | tar -xf - tar -czf - * | nc 1.2.3.4 7000 Files appear one by one on the remote end.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- johnmaguire2013 12y agoYou can stream zips if you don't use compression, and you can use compression on files small enough to hold in memory. I work at Barracuda Networks, and we actually do this every day.[1] [1] https://github.com/barracudanetworks/ArchiveStream-php https://github.com/barracudanetworks/ArchiveStream-php
- angry_octet 12y agoPerhaps they meant seekable when compressed? As in the header for each object has the compressed length of object? Presumably in a meta data header with name, compression format, claimed uncompressed length, date, etc. Personally I'd like a tool that lets me extract files from TB size archives easily without decompressing everything. Only virtual disk images seem to have that random access functionality. There are ways of using gzip/bzip/xz that use sync points, so you could produce a compatible archive that allowed decompressing metadata bits, though it would suck for many small files.
- jdpage 12y agoI think the README is just badly worded, since "not streamable" does differentiate it from RAR and ZIP, which makes it a differentiating factor.