[syslinux] Symlink in compressed file

Gene Cumm
Mon, 24 Jul 2017 03:35:02 -0000

On Sun, Jul 23, 2017 at 7:22 PM,  <mikezb at softhome.net>
wrote:
> Gene Cumm:
> ?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
______________________________________________________________________
>>>>>
>>>>> ?
>>>>> I ? tried a more flexible script, but it had trouble
unpacking
>>>>> syslinux-6.04-pre1.tar.xz for application; on inspection of
the log, I found
>>>>> incomplete unpacking - at least 1 file (named advconst?)
was compressed to
>>>>> zero-length.
>>>>> I suspect this was an error - the zip file worked.
>>>>> ?
>>>>
>>>>
______________________________________________________________________
>>>> ? advconst.h ? It's a symlink.  Some extractors might mess
up.
>>>> Extracting onto a file system that has no concept of a symlink
like say FAT
>>>> will also have issues. ?
>>>
>>>
______________________________________________________________________
>>> ?
>>
>> The boot loader _itself_ is compatible.  This is merely a single header
>> file in the source portion of the archive file and unnecessary for
normal
>> use.  If I recall correctly, tar can store symlinks while zip can not
and
>> must duplicate the file to store it.
>> ?
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> Aha!  That script's unpacking far more than necessary!
> Thank you.
> (I'll stick with zips until I have the script working with
symlinks/tars.)
>
> Warm Regards

That makes sense.  If it's a script you wrote, consider just pulling
the binary and perl files as needed.  The binaries come in up to 3
flavors (one per architecture), especially COM32 files.  Some tools
are written in Perl to be more cross-platform ready.