Homework 04: mTar

Requirements:

• Must support two command line options

  • -a file.mtar file1 [files...]
  • -x file.mtar

• Options, explained:

  • -a file.mtar file1 [files...]
    • -a: "archive"
    • file.mtar: name of archive file
    • file1: must have at least one file to archive
    • files...: optional additional files
  • -x file.mtar
    • -x: "extract"
    • file.mtar: archived file from previous execution

• Archiving:

  • Must combine all file attributes, contents into single archival file (.mtar)
    • filename
    • permissions
    • timestamps
    • contents
  • Must work with any type of regular file
    • text
    • binary
    • jpeg
    • pdf
  • Must ignore other types of files
    • directories
    • sockets
  • S_ISREG() to determine file type

• Extraction:

  • Must take single archive file (.mtar)
    • .mtar archive file generated using same program (with -a option)
  • Must recreate and fully restore all files in archive file
    • filename
    • timestamps
    • permissions
    • contents

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Hints

• chmod
• utime
• utimbuf