> There are many more things that could upset amverify's ability
> to better test the archive.  These include the compession utility
> used (gzip vs bzip2 or ???), archive program used, and use of
> encryption of the archive.  I think these things will be coming
> into greater usage at amanda sites as amanda continues to add
> new features.

Encryption, I have not think about it, but at least when talking about
gzip, there is only one gzip standard, and only one bzip2 standard,
while tar could mean different things... So plain gunzip and bunzip2
will work, whatever the bzip2 and gzip command used.

But when it comes to extracting files from a tar file, is there
different format of the tar file (or just different ways to make a
file with a unique format) and if only one format, just any tar
extract should work, how ever the tar file was created.

Actually Jon,what you are saying is going in the same direction as
what I say, Amanda should qualify the file saying "this is a tar file,
this is a gziped file" and not "this is a
/usr/local/whatever/strage/path/GnUtAr file".

Best regards,

Olivier