Seth Arnold writes ("Re: Debian part of a version number when epoch is bumped"):
> tar will treat a filename with : in it as a command to connect to a remote
> machine via rsh and execute /etc/rmt remotely:
> ftp://ftp.gnu.org/old-gnu/Manuals/tar/html_node/tar_127.html
>
> The git repo shows that GNU tar had --force-local in 1994 (f_force_local):
>
> http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/tar.git/commit/?id=d3fdd8259b1dd0e5ec05d1540b10d2deba7cc864
>
> Perhaps not using colons in filenames directly comes from not wanting to
> require --force-local on every single tar invocation for decades to come?
rsync and scp have similar behaviour.
Basically, `:' is annoying in filenames. Encoding it would have been
possible but we don't encode anything else. And I think a rule
against reusing the same upstream version with a different epoch is
entirely sensible, anyway.
There are a lot of things I did many years ago which now turn out to
have been mistakes; I don't think this is one of them.
Ian.
--
Ian Jackson <ijack...@chiark.greenend.org.uk> These opinions are my own.
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