star mit Homebrew, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, zypper installieren

Projektlinks

• Homepage
• Upstream-Dokumentation
• Paketmanager-Seite

Befehle und Aliase

• scpio
• spax
• star
• suntar
• ustar

Projektgeschichte

The upstream README says star development started in 1982 and that the first complete implementation was finished in 1985. The same README describes it as a tar-like archiver with FIFO-based streaming, pattern matching, multivolume support, sparse-file handling, remote archives, and full-backup features.

The current Codeberg schilytools README presents schilytools as a collection of tools originally written or managed by Jorg Schilling and continued by the schilytools project to preserve compatibility, extend portability, and fix bugs.

Adoptionsgeschichte

star belongs to the older Unix culture where package managers shipped multiple archive implementations because tar formats, tape drives, remote tape servers, and vendor Unix behavior differed in practice. The input facts list packages for Homebrew, MacPorts, Nix, zypper, and related RPM ecosystems.

Its long life also reflects the persistence of tar as both a source-distribution format and a system-backup format. Package maintainers care about such tools because archive correctness affects source releases, backups, file metadata, sparse files, and long path names.

Wie es verwendet wird

The official manual describes star as a fast tar-like archiver that archives and extracts multiple files to and from a tarfile, which can be a tape or ordinary file.

Common usage overlaps with tar, pax, cpio, backup, restore, and remote tape workflows. The README highlights selectable command-line interfaces for star, suntar, gnutar, pax, and cpio, which made it useful in compatibility-heavy Unix environments.

Warum Paket-Nerds sich dafür interessieren

star matters to package nerds because tar compatibility is infrastructure, not decoration. A package manager that can build, test, and ship an alternate tar implementation gives users another way to inspect archive edge cases involving sparse files, long paths, metadata, timestamps, compression detection, and POSIX.1-2001 headers.

It is also a reminder that archival tools are part of the supply chain: the boring command that unpacks source code can determine whether metadata survives and whether backups can be trusted.

Zeitleiste

• 1982: Upstream README says star development started.
• 1985: Upstream README says the first complete implementation was done.
• 2020: star README revision still credited J. Schilling and documented the tool's features.
• 2022: schilytools project continued the collection on Codeberg after Schilling's original stewardship.

Related projects

• star sits alongside tar, pax, cpio, ufsdump, ufsrestore, rmt, mt, and the broader schilytools collection.
• The package also installs compatibility-flavored commands such as suntar, ustar, spax, and scpio.

Quellen

• https://codeberg.org/schilytools/schilytools/src/branch/master/README
• https://codeberg.org/schilytools/schilytools/src/branch/master/star/README
• https://codeberg.org/schilytools/schilytools/src/branch/master/star/star.1
• source_facts.executables
• source_facts.package-manager