[ovs-dev] [PATCH] configure.ac: Enable 'tar-ustar' by default

[Ben Pfaff]

On Wed, Jan 14, 2015 at 12:02:05PM +0000, Finucane, Stephen wrote:
> > On 01/14/2015 01:15 PM, Finucane, Stephen wrote:
> > >> Thanks for the followup.  I hope that the Automake maintainers consider
> > >> the issue.
> > >
> > > No reply after > 1 week. How could we proceed here, as I'm still unable
> > to run 'make dist' (without manual patching) in the interim? Based on my
> > conversation with Eric, it looks like this is something that could be
> > changed in a future Automake version but that could be months (or years
> > :eek:) away. Additionally, there doesn't seem to be anyway to change that
> > setting at compile time (which would be the preferred option).
> > 
> > BTW ustar is not really a solution to large UID/GID problems either, see
> > https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake/2013-02/msg00075.html
> > 
> > Ever since that patch went in, tar-ustar is no longer usable for users
> > with 32bit UID/GID (such as typically created by FreeIPA at least). I'd
> > suggest going directly to tar-pax instead, compatibility shouldn't be an
> > issue since OVS doesn't target antique commercial unixen anyway.
> > 
> > 	- Panu -
> 
> Ah...interesting. If Mr. Lattarini is to be believed, this change
> should have been in Automake 1.13.2, yet I'm using 1.13.4 and see no
> such issues (I haven't checked the Automake source to find the exact
> merge commit yet). Nonetheless, 'tar-pax' works fine for me and I'd be
> happy to submit an update using that format, assuming lack of support
> in those older Unixes is truly irrelevant.

After following this discussion I'd be happy to accept a patch against
Open vSwitch to use "tar-pax" format.

Stephen, thanks for all the followup.