FWIW, the current version of tar uses
-z for gzip compression
-j for bzip2 compression
There is no need to specifically un{b}zip tars as the effective processes
are
tar -xjf xyz --becomes--> bunzip2 < xyz | tar -xf -
tar -xjf xyz ... --becomes--> tar -cf - ... | bzip2 > xyz
The primary advantage to providing the archive in bzip2 (instead of gzip)
format is the reduction of download time; saving storage space is a much
less significant issue.
Whether or not you save space with the archive is a separate issue, IMO
fairly insignificant given the difficulty in finding a new drive UNDER
40GB.
(Said by someone who just installed a 7.3.2 demo on a 16MB P-90 laptop
running RH70)
On 23 Mar 2003, Daniel R. Anderson wrote:
> <snip>
>
> I wasn't suggesting that an untarred, decompressed bzip2 archive would
> need less space then a compressed one; I was simply pointing out that if
> you're downloading it to install you need so much disk space. AND, if I
> remember correctly bunzip2 -- like when you gunzip a *.gz -- removes the
> extension.[0] So you'd have to recompress the tar file /anyways/ --
> thus making it a negligible savings.
