Re: [Bug-cpio] 64 bit cpio format for RPM?

[Tim Kientzle]

On Jul 7, 2011, at 4:12 AM, Florian Festi wrote:
> As you may know RPM is using the cpio format to store the files contents 
> within the RPM packages. During the last couple of years a number of issues 
> have popped up that root in the limitation to 32 bits in the integer data 
> fields of the cpio format.

Which specific fields?

I've heard of a few attempts to extend the cpio format over the years,
but none have really gained any traction.  I don't envy your position:
any extension to the cpio format will necessarily be non-standard,
and GNU cpio is far from the only implementation of cpio in the
world.  ;-)   If you do have to switch formats, I would suggest taking
a careful look at the "pax" extended tar format.  It has it's problems,
but it is at least well-standardized and pretty widely supported
already.  It's also quite extensible and has essentially no limits
on numeric range.

Cheers,

Tim Kientzle