Re: git-archive's wrong documentation: really write pax rather than tar

On Wed, Aug 03, 2011 at 07:25:32PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:

quoted

Actually, it is relevant for zip, too. The option should really be
called "--no-commit-id" or something similar. I don't think it's as big
a deal with zip (because there is no compatibility issue), but you may
want to omit the header for other reasons (e.g., because you know it
doesn't point to a commit that is public).

Hmm, perhaps. It indeed is an implementation detail of the tar backend
that the commit object name is stored in pax header, so --no-commit-id
might make sense from "git" point of view, but from the point of view of
OP that started this thread, he wouldn't care what that extra information
is --- it can be a commit object name or it can be phase of the moon when
the archive was made --- he just wants the extra header dropped.

So I dunno.

If the intent of the option is "write plain-vanilla ustar" (I really
hope it doesn't need to be "plain-vanilla 4.3BSD tar"), then I think we
would do better to have a new --format type. Because from the OP's
perspective, it's not "drop this header that I don't like" but "make
something compatible with older versions of tar".

-Peff