> If you have a tar spec (or suitably licenced code), please mail it to me,
> and I'll be able to make more informed comments.
The POSIX tar format is documented as part of the "Single Unix
Specification, version 2" which is available from:
http://www.opengroup.org
http://www.opengroup.org/publications/catalog/t912.htm
You can download the standard as HTML. They keep moving the location
around so if the second URL breaks start from the top. They do want an
email address from you and they will spam this address with
invitations to conferences. There's no such thing as a free lunch, I
guess.
For source code, any FreeBSD, NetBSD, or OpenBSD mirror will have pax
which understands both cpio and tar format and is BSD licensed:
ftp://ftp.au.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-current/src/bin/pax/
Regards,
Giles