Re: Why do Informix Products ship with TAR and not CPIO?
David Williams wrote: > > In article <5lpfrs$9d9@cssun.mathcs.emory.edu>, Greg McGregor > <lbduck@kew.starway.net.au> writes > > > >Hi All, > > > >My question came about when I recently installed Informix products (4.16 = > >RDS/ONLINE 5.07/I-STAR) for a client using the standard TAR to extract = > >the Informix software (as instructed). Their system is HP-UX 10.20 = > >running the above products. The final step after installing the = > >Informix products was to load our software which was compiled on a HP-UX = > >10.10 running Informix-4gl 4.16 Development products. We use CPIO to cut = > >tapes and extract again at the client site. =20 > > > >This time around I experienced problems when attempting CPIO at the = > >client site. The CPIO returned a message like: > > > > " End of Volume" > > "Enter next device name .... to continue." > > > >Even though I have previously read the contents fine back at the office = > >prior to leaving to install. > > > >My theory is different compression modes between the two different HP-UX = > >operating systems. To get the client the new versions of our system I = > >am resorting to TARing the files. Now for my question. Why does = > >Informix TAR instead of CPIO? Are there any benefits from one to the = > >other? > > > tar is simpler - tar cvf to create and tar xvf to extract. > cpio is not as portable... > you have to use the following options > > -B <blocksize> > -c ANSI headers > > to be portable...why bother? > > Also since cpio depends upon the blocksize of the device and tar does > not it means you do not have to try and find the block size for the > device. > > having said that I just installed SE 7.1 on a SCo box and Informix had > used cpio to create the tapes...The were so many options used to cpio > that I forget them all :-> I thought ALL Informix software was shipped using cpio. Certainly all the installations I've done use it, and the options 'icvdumB' get implanted in the brain. ;-) Cheers, -- Mark. +------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Mark D. Stock - The West Solutions Group http://www.west.co.za | | The Informix FAQ is at http://www.iiug.org | |mailto:marks@west.co.za +-----------------------------------------+ |Tel: +27 11 803 2151 |If it doesn't work, force it! | |Fax: +27 11 803 2189 |If it breaks, it needed replacing anyway!| |Cell: +27 83 250 2325 |Well, that's how I code anyway! | +------------------------+-----------------------------------------+