[kwlug-disc] tar replacement

[Paul Nijjar]

I am sick and tired of tar. Using it for anything nontrivial is a
nightmare, because its user interface is so bad and so finicky. 
(Example: --exclude='some/path' fails, but --exclude=some/path works.
Meanwhile, --exclude=some/path/ also fails. But it always fails if it
is in the wrong spot of the command, just because there is a secret
ordering you have to remember. UGH.) 

Unfortunately tar is ubiquitous, so I am not getting rid of it anytime
soon. But is there something else that is good and has a sane
commandline interface?

- Creates archives
- Allows flexible inclusions and exclusions
- Probably compresses files, although I don't mind piping to gzip or
  bzip2 or xz 
- Easily available in Linux systems (ie packaged for Debian/Ubuntu)
- Friendly to being used in scripts (even shell scripts, which are
  their own abomination). 

Probably I have more requirements but this is enough for now. 

Maybe p7zip is the best contender as a replacement?

- Paul


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