--- a/scripts/miscellaneous/tar.m	Thu May 11 01:48:56 2006 +0000
+++ b/scripts/miscellaneous/tar.m	Thu May 11 03:11:08 2006 +0000
@@ -15,80 +15,58 @@
 ## Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
 
 ## -*- texinfo -*-
-## @deftypefn {Function File} tar (@var{filename}, @var{files})
-## @deftypefnx{Function File} tar (@var{filename}, @var{files}, @var{root})
-## @deftypefnx{Function File} @var{entries} = tar (...)
-## Packs the files listed in @var{files} into @var{filename} using
-## the @code{tar} program. @var{files} must either be a string or a cell
-## array of strings containing the files to be packed. The extension of
-## @var{filename} determines if the tar-file is also to be compressed
-## (if no extension is present @code{.tar} will be appended to @var{filename})
-## @table @asis
-## @item @code{.tar}
-##   No compression.
-## @item @code{.tar.gz} or @code{.tgz}
-##   The tar-file will be compressed using @code{gzip}.
-## @item @code{tar.bz}, @code{tar.bz2}, @code{tbz}, or @code{tbz2}
-##   The tar-file will be compressed using @code{bzip2}.
-## @end table
+## @deftypefn {Function File} {@var{entries} =} tar (@var{tarfile}, @var{files}, @var{root})
+## Pack @var{files} @var{files} into the TAR archive @var{tarfile}.  The
+## list of files must be a string or a cell array of strings.
+##
 ## The optional argument @var{root} changes the relative path of @var{files}
 ## from the current directory.
 ##
-## If an output argument is requested the filename entries in the archive
-## is returned.
-## 
+## If an output argument is requested the entries in the archive are
+## returned in a cell array.
+## @seealso{untar, gzip, gunzip, zip, unzip}
 ## @end deftypefn
-## @seealso{untar, gzip, gunzip, zip, unzip}
 
-## Author: Søren Hauberg <hauberg at gmail dot com>
+## Author: Søren Hauberg <hauberg@gmail.com>
 
-function entries = tar(filename, files, root)
-    if (nargin < 2 || nargin > 3)
-        print_usage("tar");
-    elseif (nargin == 2)
-        root = ".";
+function entries = tar (tarfile, files, root)
+
+  if (nargin == 2 || nargin == 3)
+
+    if (nargin == 2)
+      root = ".";
     endif
-    
-    supported_extensions = {"tar", "tar.gz", "tgz", "tar.bz", "tar.bz2", "tbz", "tbz2"};
 
     ## Test type of input
-    if (ischar(files))
-        files = {files};
-    endif
-    if (!ischar(filename) || !iscellstr(files) || !ischar(root))
-        error("All arguments must be strings.\n");
-    endif
-    
-    ## Get extension of filename
-    dots = find(filename == ".");
-    for dot = dots
-        curext = filename(dot+1:end);
-        if (any(strcmp(curext, supported_extensions)))
-            ext = curext;
-            break;
-        endif
-    endfor
-
-    ## If no extension was found default to "tar"
-    if (!exist("ext", "var"))
-        filename = sprintf("%s.tar", filename);
-        ext = "tar";
+    if (ischar (files))
+      files = cellstr (files);
     endif
 
-    ## Determine which flags to use with tar
-    switch (ext)
-        case {"tar"} flag = "";
-        case {"tar.gz", "tgz"} flag = "z";
-        case {"tar.bz", "tar.bz2", "tbz", "tbz2"} flag = "j";
-    endswitch
+    if (ischar (tarfile) && iscellstr (files) && ischar (root))
+
+      cmd = sprintf ("tar -c -v -f %s -C %s %s", tarfile, root,
+		     sprintf (" %s", files{:}));
+
+      [status, output] = system (cmd);
 
-    ## Call tar
-    [output, status] = system(["tar -" flag "cvf " filename " -C " root sprintf(" %s", files{:})]);
-    if (status != 0)
-        error("tar returned the following error: %s\n", output);
+      if (status == 0)
+	if (nargout > 0)
+	  if (output(end) == "\n")
+	    output(end) = [];
+	  endif
+          entries = cellstr (split (output, "\n"));
+	  entries = entries';
+	endif
+      else
+	error ("tar: tar exited with status = %d", status);
+      endif
+    
+    else
+      error ("tar: expecting all arguments to be character strings");
     endif
-    
-    if (nargout)
-        entries = split(output(1:end-1), "\n");
-    endif
+
+  else
+    print_usage("tar");
+  endif
+
 endfunction