Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen
From: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: Why "shar: Shell Archive  (v1.22)" is bad
Message-ID: <521@crdos1.crd.ge.COM>
Date: 26 Sep 89 13:40:30 GMT
References: <14502@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <4155@cbnewsh.ATT.COM> <1989Sep25.195540.18104@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: davidsen@crdos1.UUCP (bill davidsen)
Organization: GE Corp R&D Center
Lines: 19

In article <1989Sep25.195540.18104@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, mcdonald@aries.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald) writes:

|  code. Using a UNIX shell is not satisfactory IF the operations
|  cannot be conveniently done by a relatively simple program.
|  This is so people who don't use UNIX can use these files. Binary
|  files should be clearly distinguished from text files. 

  We're talking about comp.sources.unix. Making a compromise in error
checking to allow non-unix people to use unix sources isn't a really
good idea. Since every one using unix has /bin/sh it's the unpacker of
choice. The paranoid can use a chroot script to prevent possible side
effects. Unpackers are nice, useful, etc, but everybody doesn't have
one, so common sense dictates that we use something you have.

-- 
bill davidsen	(davidsen@crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen)
"The world is filled with fools. They blindly follow their so-called
'reason' in the face of the church and common sense. Any fool can see
that the world is flat!" - anon