[p4] p4tar/p4untar

[Jay Glanville]

I had originally thought of porting p4tar/p4untar to python and using
the built-in zip support.  Thus, replacing the dependencies on perl, tar
and other UNIX tools with simply python.

If I did this, I would also have changed the archive's structure.  For
example, using the file's depot path as the path inside the archive
(currently, all files get renamed and placed into a flat file space in
the tar).  I also would use the zip's comments to store the metadata for
the archived files (this includes version numbers and other things).

Unfortunately, the zip support in python doesn't support zip comments.
Thus, the only way that I can store metadata is how the current
implementation does it: makes a text file in the root directory.  This
is the one thing that's holding me back.

The major advantage to using a zip with hierarchical files is that
recipients who don't have p4tar/p4untar can still read the contents of
the zip.  Currently, when unarchiving the tar, the recipient needs to
interpret the content (read the metadata file to determine which file is
which, etc).

JDG

---
Jay Dickon Glanville


> -----Original Message-----
> From: perforce-user-bounces at perforce.com 
> [mailto:perforce-user-bounces at perforce.com] On Behalf Of Robert Cowham
> Sent: April 26, 2007 8:16 AM
> To: 'Jeff Grills'; 'Nikhil Singhal'
> Cc: perforce-user at perforce.com
> Subject: Re: [p4] p4tar/p4untar
> 
> 
> A python version of the tools could use the built in zip library. In
> addition, py2exe could be used to provide a straight forward Windows
> precompiled version with no extra dependencies on python etc.
> 
> I just happen to know about these things in Python, but no 
> doubt something
> similar could be done with Perl.
> 
> Robert 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: perforce-user-bounces at perforce.com 
> > [mailto:perforce-user-bounces at perforce.com] On Behalf Of Jeff Grills
> > Sent: 25 April 2007 16:40
> > To: 'Nikhil Singhal'
> > Cc: perforce-user at perforce.com
> > Subject: Re: [p4] p4tar/p4untar
> > 
> > Oh, I didn't take your post as a gripe at all.  I'm glad that 
> > you, and many others it seems, have benefited from these 
> > utilities.  I believe software should be obvious, easy to 
> > use, and (when possible) hard to misuse.  The dependencies 
> > that p4tar/p4untar have on external utilities that aren't 
> > commonly installed on Windows platforms make those tools much 
> > harder to use on Windows than I'd like, and I fully 
> > understand that Windows is a very popular development and 
> > deployment platform.  I've developed on and shipped several 
> > commercial products for Windows over the past 12 years.  
> > 
> > My solicitation for replacement ideas was motivated only by a 
> > desire to improve these utilities for everyone, myself 
> > included.  And my request still stands - if anyone has ideas, 
> > I'd really like to hear them.
> > 
> > And if support is listening (and of course they are), I 
> > wouldn't mind at all if this functionality made its way into 
> > p4/p4win/p4v as a native perforce capability and these 
> > utilities became obsolete.  I'd love to be able to 
> > right-click a changelist in one of the GUI clients and select 
> > a menu entry for "Archive changelist to file."  Wouldn't that 
> > be useful?
> > 
> > j
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