From: Dimitri Aivaliotis <aglarond@...>
Date: 2006-04-07T05:32:18+09:00
Subject: Re: Archive::Tar uncompress question

Hi Dan,

On 4/6/06, Berger, Daniel <Daniel.Berger@qwest.com> wrote:
> It basically boils down to a case of unexpected usage.  The assumption
> is that you're creating (or going to create) an archive when you use
> Archive::Tar.new.
>

I actually chose Archive::Tar over Archive::Tar::Minitar because I
needed something quick-and-dirty that could handle all the kinds of
archives in my original post.  My application only deals with the
un-packing of these archives - the originals stay where they are, and
my app doesn't create them.

> You are, of course, free to redefine uncompress_archive, but rather than
> patching the lib itself, I recommend taking advantage of Ruby's open
> classes:
>
> # Somewhere in your code:

<snip>

This is actually what I have done.  I just presented it in
pseudo-patch form for conciseness, and perhaps to convince you that it
really isn't an error, but could be handled differently. :)

> I suppose I could add class methods that would do the sort of thing
> you're trying to do.  Or, you could add your own class method.

A la

module Archive
  class Tar
    attr_accessor :compressed_archive_name
  end
end

?

That still involves redefinition.  I try to avoid that with
non-standard-lib libraries.  You never know when the name is going to
change. :)

> Also note that I'll probably be changing the name to
> Archive::Tar::External in the future.
>

Ok, thanks.  Interesting naming discussion this started...

- Dimitri