tarfile woes
Lars Gustaebel
lars at gustaebel.de
Fri Aug 22 05:40:13 EDT 2003
On Thu, 21 Aug 2003 19:29:50 +0200, Hans-Joachim Widmaier wrote:
> - bzip2 compressed files cannot be read from a "fake" (StringIO) file
> object, only from real files.
Much to my regret, this is a limitation of the bz2 module which is used.
> - It does not handle compressed (.Z) archives.
This is sad, too, but IMO tolerable for most people.
> - TarInfo and ZipInfo (zipfile) objects differ without need.
>
> TarInfo attribute ZipFile attribute
>
> name filename
> size file_size
> mtime date_time (int, 6-Tuple)
As you observed by yourself ZipInfo's naming scheme is inconsistent and I
didn't find it a good idea to adopt this mindlessly. Also, I found an
integer value for mtime much more versatile than a tuple.
> I can see 2 reasons for that: 1. The library is written by a bunch of
> different guys at different dates. Everyone's got her own style, and it
> shows. 2. The underlying internals ahll get exposed to some degree.
Good observation.
I didn't have the standard library in mind when I started writing tarfile.
I realized the zipfile interface wouldn't suit my ideas, so I decided to
design one I could be happy with. In the months before tarfile's addition
to the stdlib I perceived some people's concerns about this lack of
uniformity, so I added the TarFileCompat class to calm them down. Perhaps
it could serve you too.
Your criticism is justified. And I'm sure that in the future a
standardized and extensible interface to archive manipulation could emerge
*if* people just want it badly enough (and someone does all the work :-).
Let's wait and see.
--
Lars Gustäbel
lars at gustaebel.de
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