Keep in mind that the tar “manual” does not actually call itself a “manual”: it refers to itself as a “book”.
It has 20 pages of preamble (5 title pages, discussions of the authors, descriptions of the intended audience, etc.)
It has another 20 pages elaborating on important structs in the tar source code.
The licence takes up another 10 pages.
The index at the end is 25 pages long.
It’s less of a “read this if you want to know how to use tar” and more of a “read this if you want some bedtime reading on the history and philosophy of tape drives, and maybe a tiny little footnote about how to use tar buried somewhere”.
Keep in mind that the tar “manual” does not actually call itself a “manual”: it refers to itself as a “book”. It has 20 pages of preamble (5 title pages, discussions of the authors, descriptions of the intended audience, etc.) It has another 20 pages elaborating on important structs in the tar source code. The licence takes up another 10 pages. The index at the end is 25 pages long.
It’s less of a “read this if you want to know how to use tar” and more of a “read this if you want some bedtime reading on the history and philosophy of tape drives, and maybe a tiny little footnote about how to use tar buried somewhere”.