n8blog
distraction in action
Hail to the xar!

I just tried testing the latest SVN HEAD revision of xar, and wow.

------------------ xar ------------------
Verifying:    basic-permissions ... ok
Verifying:           timestamps ...
   Sub-test:    modification time ... ok
ok
Verifying:             symlinks ... ok
Verifying:    symlink-ownership ... ok
Verifying:            hardlinks ... ok
Verifying:       resource-forks ... ok
Verifying:         finder-flags ... ok
Verifying:         finder-locks ... ok
Verifying:        creation-date ... FAIL
Verifying:            bsd-flags ... ok
Verifying:       extended-attrs ...
   Sub-test:             on files ... ok
   Sub-test:       on directories ... ok
   Sub-test:          on symlinks ... ok
ok
Verifying: access-control-lists ...
   Sub-test:             on files ... ok
   Sub-test:              on dirs ... ok
ok
Verifying:                 fifo ... ok
Verifying:              devices ... ok
Verifying:          combo-tests ...
   Sub-test:  xattrs + rsrc forks ... ok
   Sub-test:     lots of metadata ... ok
ok

Now that’s one impressive result! They’ve got a bug in their tracker for the creation date issue, so hopefully it’ll be solved soon. There’s still an unfortunate issue with xar that prevents me from gushing uncontrollably about it — you can’t build a “xarpipe” to copy filesystem subtrees around. In other words, you always have to archive to a file, then unarchive from that file. This means that if you want to, say, transfer all your files from an old drive to a new drive you’d better have a third drive around, or your new drive had better be twice as big as the size of the files on your old one.

May 2nd, 2007 [Projects/Backup-Bouncer • Apple/OS X] permalink TB
« Backup Bouncer 0.1.1 :: xar rox »

  Comments:

1. Steve Kalkwarf replies:

i do not see the same results as you. If I build the 1.5.2 alpha, or trunk, I see these results:

—————— xar_15 ——————
Verifying: basic-permissions … ok
Verifying: timestamps …
Sub-test: modification time … ok
ok
Verifying: symlinks … ok
Verifying: symlink-ownership … ok
Verifying: hardlinks … ok
Verifying: resource-forks … ok
Verifying: finder-flags … ok
Verifying: finder-locks … ok
Verifying: creation-date … ok
Verifying: bsd-flags … ok
Verifying: extended-attrs …
Sub-test: on files … ok
Sub-test: on directories … ok
Sub-test: on symlinks … ok
ok
Verifying: access-control-lists …
Sub-test: on files … FAIL
Sub-test: on dirs … FAIL
FAIL
Verifying: fifo … ok
Verifying: devices … ok
Verifying: combo-tests …
Sub-test: xattrs + rsrc forks … ok
Sub-test: lots of metadata … FAIL
FAIL

—————— xar_trunk ——————
Verifying: basic-permissions … ok
Verifying: timestamps …
Sub-test: modification time … ok
ok
Verifying: symlinks … ok
Verifying: symlink-ownership … ok
Verifying: hardlinks … ok
Verifying: resource-forks … ok
Verifying: finder-flags … ok
Verifying: finder-locks … ok
Verifying: creation-date … ok
Verifying: bsd-flags … ok
Verifying: extended-attrs …
Sub-test: on files … ok
Sub-test: on directories … ok
Sub-test: on symlinks … ok
ok
Verifying: access-control-lists …
Sub-test: on files … FAIL
Sub-test: on dirs … FAIL
FAIL
Verifying: fifo … ok
Verifying: devices … ok
Verifying: combo-tests …
Sub-test: xattrs + rsrc forks … ok
Sub-test: lots of metadata … FAIL
FAIL

December 13th, 2007 at 3:34 pm

2. n8 replies:

It’s certainly possible that things have changed since May. Are you running Tiger or Leopard? My previous test was with Tiger. Testing again with Leopard and Xar SVN I see the same results as you. It looks like xar is dropping the ACLs altogether. Time for a bug report…

December 13th, 2007 at 5:53 pm

3. Steve Kalkwarf replies:

For some reason I haven’t determined, the configure script decides to leave HAVE_SYS_ACL_H undefined. If I manually whack the config.h file to define it, I get the desired results:


—————— xar_15 ——————
Verifying: basic-permissions … ok
Verifying: timestamps …
Sub-test: modification time … ok
ok
Verifying: symlinks … ok
Verifying: symlink-ownership … ok
Verifying: hardlinks … ok
Verifying: resource-forks … ok
Verifying: finder-flags … ok
Verifying: finder-locks … ok
Verifying: creation-date … ok
Verifying: bsd-flags … ok
Verifying: extended-attrs …
Sub-test: on files … ok
Sub-test: on directories … ok
Sub-test: on symlinks … ok
ok
Verifying: access-control-lists …
Sub-test: on files … ok
Sub-test: on dirs … ok
ok
Verifying: fifo … ok
Verifying: devices … ok
Verifying: combo-tests …
Sub-test: xattrs + rsrc forks … ok
Sub-test: lots of metadata … ok
ok

December 14th, 2007 at 10:14 am

4. n8 replies:

Ok, good catch. I’ll update my bug report.

December 14th, 2007 at 12:26 pm

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