[tex-live] Query about 'tar' and some windows/linux scripts

[Zdenek Wagner]

čt 15. 11. 2018 v 21:44 odesílatel Pablo Alfonso González Luengo <
pablgonz at educarchile.cl> napsal:

> I understand your point of view, I think using the tools of the
> operating system (if they are available) is the best. In the specific
> case of "tar" is based on "bsdtar" (http://libarchive.org/) and "curl"
> is taken directly from (https://curl.haxx.se/) ... and a couple of
> more megas or a couple of megabytes less ... even with the capacity of
> current disks ... it always makes a difference
>

In the past i installed several development tools and each of them
installed ots own curl. I wrote an application requiring curl and it finds
one of them although I am not sure, whether the one found is compatible
with the one used when compiling the application. GNU tar is even more
difficult because its options do not require dashes which need not be the
case of a non-GNU tar. I can imagine that the result of using randomly a
tool of an unknown source will be a set of weird errors. If curl and tar
were supplied by Microsoft as a default part of Windows, it could be under
control. However, a volunteer can write a TL package which will thoroughly
test installed curl and tar and then decide whether TL must install its own
versions or whether the already installed versions are compatible. Hoewver,
such a package can be larger than curl and tar. And now imagine that such a
package finds compatible curl and tar and decides to use it. A user later
finds that a tool containing curl and tar (eg. some compiler) is no longer
needed and just takes disk space, thsu he or she uninstalls it, curl and
tar disappears from the system. TL will then become unupdatable, it will no
longer be able to download its own curl because it needs curl to download
anything but cull will not be available.

Zdeněk Wagner
http://ttsm.icpf.cas.cz/team/wagner.shtml
http://icebearsoft.euweb.cz
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