Standardbuffertar

standardbuffertar is a utility for creating and manipulating tar archives in a standard, cross-platform compatible way. It is designed to be a reliable tool for packaging and distributing files, ensuring that the resulting archives can be extracted correctly by various tar implementations. The primary goal of standardbuffertar is to adhere strictly to the POSIX tar specification, minimizing potential ambiguities or proprietary extensions that can cause issues when archives are moved between different operating systems or software.

The utility provides functionalities for both creating new tar archives and extracting existing ones. When creating archives, standardbuffertar allows users to specify files and directories to be included. It handles file metadata such as permissions, ownership, and timestamps, ensuring they are preserved in a standardized format within the archive. For extraction, it reads a tar archive and recreates the original directory structure and files, respecting the metadata stored within.

Key features of standardbuffertar include its emphasis on portability and compatibility. By avoiding non-standard extensions, it aims to prevent problems that can arise from variations in tar implementations. This makes it particularly useful in environments where interoperability between different systems is critical, such as in software distribution or in automated build and deployment pipelines. The tool is typically used from the command line, offering a straightforward interface for common archiving tasks.