From: tseaver at palladion.com (Tres Seaver)
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1999 08:33:53 -0500
Subject: WinZip vs 0-length files (was RE: trivial import question)
References: <000401be7808$6105e3c0$549e2299@tim> <000201be8308$8b824520$ac9e2299@tim>
Message-ID: <3711F641.AA796DA8@palladion.com>
Content-Length: 1033
X-UID: 160                                                  

Tim Peters wrote:
> 
> With tne candidate release of Python 1.5.2 just out, this is quite timely!
> 
> At various times in March, at least Brad Clements, Lars Marius Garshol and
> Tres Seaver spread the rumor that WinZip wouldn't extract 0-length files,
> thus causing Python packages depending on an empty __init__.py to fail in
> mysterious ways.
> 
> I tried reproducing that but had no problems with the latest WinZip, so had
> a good time insulting them all <wink>.
> 
> But they were right!  Steve Spicklemire provided the missing clue offline:
> while WinZip does not have a problem with 0-length files in .zip archives,
> it does indeed fail to extract them from .tgz archives.

Heh, vindication!  I hadn't reproduced the problem myself since Tim's
chastisement (not the comfy chair!), and appreciate his graciousness in beating
us to the counterpunch.

-- 
=========================================================
Tres Seaver         tseaver at palladion.com    713-523-6582
Palladion Software  http://www.palladion.com