ruby / ruby/rubygems

Support long file/path names for TarWriter/TarReader

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type: feature request
Dominant language
Ruby
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Description

Currently TarWriter limits file/path names to 256 (or so) characters.

However, for example this test file can contain files with path names exceeding 256 characters. That file was made by GNU tar 1.28.

Would you please support long file name (path name) for TarWriter (and possibly TarReader)?

Thanks,

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with lib/rubygems/package/tar_writer.rb around the linked TarWriter code, then locate the corresponding TarReader handling. Reproduce the limitation with the provided GNU tar archive and inspect how names longer than 256 characters are represented. Done means TarWriter and, if applicable, TarReader support those long file/path names without breaking existing archives.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
ruby
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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