Wasn't the tour header Fields the reason for the strange strncpy semantics? Which came first?
strncpy appeared in V7 as far as I can tell. I can't find it in v6 or earlier. I can't find any of the str functions in fact...
Also, there's a new libarchive-based tar as well that the BSDs are using since it understands many other formats. It's largely replaced the gnutar that had previously been in BSD.
Warneer