# Rake's PackageTask should have tar -h for symbolic links **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [April 4, 2006, 6:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rakes-packagetask-should-have-tar-h-for-symbolic-links/93547 "2006-04-04T18:06:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ed\_Howland](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/7993a0/32.png) [@Ed\_Howland](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Ed_Howland)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 6:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rakes-packagetask-should-have-tar-h-for-symbolic-links/93547/1 "2006-04-04T18:06:54Z")
Hi, I have a need to have Rake::PackageTask implement the -h option on tar +gz and bz2. This would allow for tar to include any linked files/folders. The workaround is to cp -r the entire contents of the linked dir. This is klunky at best. Any chance of this? Any other workarounds? Thanks Ed ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Howland](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/7993a0/32.png) [@Ed\_Howland](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Ed_Howland)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 7:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rakes-packagetask-should-have-tar-h-for-symbolic-links/93547/2 "2006-04-04T19:43:09Z")
Ed Howland wrote: > Hi, > > I have a need to have Rake::PackageTask implement the -h option on tar > +gz and bz2. This would allow for tar to include any linked > files/folders. The workaround is to cp -r the entire contents of the > linked dir. This is klunky at best. > > Any chance of this? Any other workarounds? Two issues: (1) Rake actually makes a copy of the directory and tars that up. That way the tar file will not accidently pick up non-package files that might be laying around. It will use hard links on Unix do keep the disk space usage down (Windows, however, uses a full copy). Any symbolic links would have to be added to that copied directory structure for the package task to pick it up. (2) I’m considering adding support for the pure-ruby tar library to build the tarfile. This would allow the package to be built on windows machines that don’t a tar program. But I’m not sure if the pure ruby tar library supports a -h option. That would have to be verfified. I’m open to patches for supporting the -h option given the above constraints. – – Jim W. ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Howland](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/7993a0/32.png) [@Ed\_Howland](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Ed_Howland)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 8:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rakes-packagetask-should-have-tar-h-for-symbolic-links/93547/3 "2006-04-04T20:30:38Z")
On 4/4/06, Jim W. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > (2) I’m considering adding support for the pure-ruby tar library to > build the tarfile. This would allow the package to be built on windows > machines that don’t a tar program. But I’m not sure if the pure ruby > tar library supports a -h option. That would have to be verfified. I have been given a patch for minitar that is supposed to support symlinks. I have not had time to review or apply it yet. Additionally, a significant upgrade to minitar may be in the works if something else I’m working on pans out. -austin ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Howland](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/7993a0/32.png) [@Ed\_Howland](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Ed_Howland)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 11:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rakes-packagetask-should-have-tar-h-for-symbolic-links/93547/4 "2006-04-04T23:14:11Z")
On 4/4/06, Jim W. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Ed Howland wrote: > Two issues: > > (1) Rake actually makes a copy of the directory and tars that up. That > way the tar file will not accidently pick up non-package files that > might be laying around. It will use hard links on Unix do keep the disk > space usage down (Windows, however, uses a full copy). Any symbolic > links would have to be added to that copied directory structure for the > package task to pick it up. The workaround I came up with does the copy, but at the time time of Rake’s copy: require ‘find’ Rake::PackageTask.new(“mytarball”, “3-31-2006”) do |p| p.need\_tar\_gz = true Find.find(‘mydir’) do |path| p.package\_files \<\< path end end It works on any symbolic links by just recursing down the other tree and adding pathnames to the package’s file list. So it minimizes the disk space usage to only what Rake uses. > (2) I’m considering adding support for the pure-ruby tar library to > build the tarfile. This would allow the package to be built on windows > machines that don’t a tar program. But I’m not sure if the pure ruby > tar library supports a -h option. That would have to be verfified. > > I’m open to patches for supporting the -h option given the above > constraints. That would be nice. Would using the pure-ruby tar library in Rake avoid the need to do the copy to pkg/? My Rakefile tasks leave everything in a final folder to be tarballed. It seems an unneccesary step to create the pkg directory and copy everything in there. Could an option be added to PackageTask to just tar an existing dir? BTW, Curt H. just taught us StL Rubyists how to use Rake. It is great! > – > – Jim W. Ed