Dogcows Code - chaz/tar/blob - NEWS

   1 GNU tar NEWS - User visible changes.
   2 Copyright 1994, 1995-1998, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
   3
   4 version 1.13.11 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-23.
   5
   6 * The short name of the --bzip option has been changed to -I,
   7   for compatibility with paxutils.
   8
   9 * -T /dev/null now matches nothing; previously, it matched anything
  10   if no explicit operands were given.
  11
  12 * The `--' option now works the same as with other GNU utilities;
  13   it causes later operands to be interpreted as file names, not options,
  14   even if they begin with `-'.
  15
  16 * For the --newer and --after-date options, the table of time zone
  17   abbreviations like `EST' has been updated to match current practice.
  18   Also, local time abbreviations are now recognized, even if they are
  19   not in tar's hardwired table.  Remember, thougy, that you should use
  20   numeric UTC offsets like `-0500' instead of abbreviations like
  21   `EST', as abbreviations are not standardized and are ambiguous.
  22
  23
  24 version 1.13.10 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-20.
  25
  26 * `tar' now uses signed base-64 when outputting header values that are
  27   out of the range of the standard unsigned base-8 format.  This
  28   affects archive members with negative time stamps or uids, and
  29   archive members 8 GB or larger.  The new tar archives cannot be read
  30   by traditional tar, or by older versions of GNU tar.  Use the
  31   --old-archive option to revert to the old behavior, which uses
  32   unportable representations for negative values, and which rejects
  33   large files.
  34
  35 version 1.13.9 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-18.
  36
  37 * `tar' now writes two zero blocks at end-of-archive instead of just one.
  38   POSIX.1 requires this, and some other `tar' implementations check for it.
  39
  40 * `tar' no longer silently accepts a block containing nonzero checksum bytes
  41   as a zero block.
  42
  43 * `tar' now reads buggy tar files that have a null byte at the start of a
  44   numeric header field.
  45
  46
  47 version 1.13.8 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-16.
  48
  49 * For compatibility with traditional `tar', intermediate directories
  50   created automatically by root are no longer given the uid and gid of
  51   the original file or directory.
  52
  53
  54 version 1.13.7 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-14.
  55
  56 * --listed-incremental and --newer are now incompatible options.
  57
  58 * When creating an archive, leading `./' is no longer stripped,
  59   to match traditional tar's behavior (and simplify the documentation).
  60
  61 * --diff without --absolute-names no longer falls back on absolute names.
  62
  63
  64 version 1.13.6 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-11.
  65
  66 * An --exclude pattern containing / now excludes a file only if it matches an
  67   initial prefix of the file name; a pattern without / continues to
  68   exclude a file if it matches any file name component.
  69
  70 * The protocol for talking to rmt has been extended slightly.
  71   Open flags are now communicated in symbolic format as well as numeric.
  72   The symbolic format (e.g. "O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC" is for portability
  73   when rmt is operating on a different operating system from tar.
  74   The numeric format is retained, and rmt uses it if symbolic format is absent,
  75   for backward compatibility with older versions of tar and rmt.
  76
  77 * When writing GNU tar format headers, tar now uses signed base-64
  78   for values that cannot be represented in unsigned octal.
  79   This supports larger files (2**66 - 1 bytes instead of 2**33 - 1 bytes),
  80   larger uids, negative time stamps, etc.
  81
  82 * When extracting files with unknown ownership, tar now looks up the
  83   uid and gid "nobody" on hosts whose headers do not define UID_NOBODY
  84   and GID_NOBODY, and falls back on uid/gid -2 if there is no "nobody".
  85
  86 * tar -t --numeric-owner now prints numeric uids and gids, not symbolic.
  87
  88 * New option -y or --bzip2 for bzip2 compression, by popular request.
  89
  90
  91 version 1.13.5 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-20.
  92
  93 * Do the delayed updates of file metadata even after a fatal error.
  94
  95
  96 version 1.13.4 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-20.
  97
  98 * Do not chmod unless we are root or the -p option was given;
  99   this matches historical practice.
 100
 101
 102 version 1.13.3 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-16.
 103
 104 * A path name is excluded if any of its file name components matches an
 105   excluded pattern, even if the path name was specified on the command line.
 106   Also see 1.13.6 for later changes in this area.
 107
 108
 109 version 1.13.2 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-14.
 110
 111 * Bug reporting address changed to <bug-tar@gnu.org>.
 112
 113
 114 version 1.13.1 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-12.
 115
 116 * Bug fixes only.
 117 \f
 118 version 1.13 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-08.
 119
 120 * Support for large files, e.g. files larger than 2 GB on many 32-bit hosts.
 121   Also, support for larger uids, device ids, etc.
 122 * Many bug fixes and porting fixes.
 123 * This release is only for fixes.  A more ambitious test release,
 124   with new features, is available as part of the paxutils.  Please see:
 125     http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/contrib/paxutils/
 126   The fixes in this release are intended to be merged with paxutils
 127   at some point, but they haven't been merged yet.
 128 * An interim GNU tar alpha had new --bzip2 and --ending-file options,
 129   but they have been removed to maintain compatibility with paxutils.
 130   Please try --use=bzip2 instead of --bzip2.
 131 \f
 132 Version 1.12 - François Pinard, 1997-04.
 133
 134 Sensitive matters
 135 * Use shell globbing patterns for --label, instead of regular expressions.
 136 * Do not quote anymore internally over the quoting done by the shell.
 137
 138 Output for humans
 139 * Offer internationalization capabilities of most recent GNU gettext.
 140 * Messages available in many more languages, thanks to all translators!
 141 * Usage of ISO 8601 dates in listings, instead of local American dates.
 142 * More normalization and cleanup in error messages.
 143
 144 Creation
 145 * For helping using tar with find, offer a --no-recursion option.
 146 * Implement --numeric-owner for ignoring symbolic names at create time.
 147 * New --owner, --group --mode options, still preliminary.
 148 * Recognize creating an archive on /dev/null, so Amanda works faster.
 149 * Object to the creation of an empty archive (like in `tar cf FILE').
 150 * Barely start implementing --posix and POSIXLY_CORRECT.
 151
 152 Extraction
 153 * Make a better job at restoring file and directory attributes.
 154 * Automatically attempt deleting existing files when in the way.
 155 * Option --unlink-first (-U) removes most files prior to extraction.
 156 * Option --recursive-unlink removes non-empty directories when in the way.
 157 * Option --numeric-owner ignores owner/group names, it uses UID/GID instead.
 158 * Use global umask when creating missing intermediate directories.
 159 * When symlinks are not available, extract symbolic links as hard links.
 160 * Diagnose extraction of contiguous files as regular files.
 161 * New --backup, --suffix and --version-control options.
 162
 163 Various changes
 164 * Better support of huge archives with --tape-length and --totals.
 165 * Rename option --read-full-blocks (-B) to --read-full-records (-B).
 166 * Rename option --block-size (-b) to --blocking-factor (-b).
 167 * Rename option --record-number (-R) to --block-number (-R).
 168 * With --block-number (-R), report null blocks and end of file.
 169 * Implement --record-size for introducing a size in bytes.
 170 * Delete --block-compress option and rather decide it automatically.
 171 * Rename option --modification-time to --touch.
 172
 173 Many bugs are squashed, while others still run free.
 174 \f
 175 Version 1.11.8 - François Pinard, 1995-06.
 176
 177 * Messages available in French, German, Portuguese and Swedish.
 178 * The distribution provides a rudimentary Texinfo manual.
 179 * The device defaults to stdin/stdout, unless overridden by the installer.
 180 * Option --sparse (-S) should work on more systems.
 181 * Option --rsh-command may select an alternative remote shell program.
 182
 183 Most changes are internal, and should yield better portability.
 184 \f
 185 Version 1.11.2 - Michael Bushnell, 1993-03.
 186
 187 * Changes in backup scripts: cleaned up considerably; notices error
 188 conditions better over rsh; DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT is now an option in
 189 backup-specs; new file dump-remind is an example of a
 190 DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT.
 191
 192 * Superfluous "Reading dirname" was a bug; fixed.
 193
 194 * Incompatibility problems with a bug on Solaris are fixed.
 195
 196 * New option --gzip (aliases are --ungzip and -z); calls gzip instead
 197 of compress.  Also, --use-compress-program lets you specify any
 198 compress program.  --compress-block is renamed --block-compress and
 199 now requires one of the three compression options to be specified.
 200
 201 * Several error messages are cleaned up.
 202
 203 * Directory owners are now set properly when running as root.
 204
 205 * Provide DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT in backup-specs as a possible option
 206 for --info-script.
 207
 208 * Behave better with broken rmt servers.
 209
 210 * Dump scripts no longer use --atime-preserve; this causes a nasty probem.
 211
 212 * Several Makefile cleanups.
 213 \f
 214 Version 1.11.1 - Michael Bushnell, 1992-09.
 215
 216 * Many bug fixes.
 217 \f
 218 Version 1.11 - Michael Bushnell, 1992-09.
 219 Version 1.10.16 - 1992-07.
 220 Version 1.10.15 - 1992-06.
 221 Version 1.10.14 - 1992-05.
 222 Version 1.10.13 - 1992-01.
 223
 224 * Many bug fixes.
 225
 226 * Now uses GNU standard configure, generated by Autoconf.
 227
 228 * Long options now use `--'; use of `+' is deprecated and support
 229 for it will eventually be removed.
 230
 231 * New option --null causes filenames read by -T to be
 232 null-terminated, and causes -C to be ignored.
 233
 234 * New option --remove-files deletes files (but not directories)
 235 after they are added to the archive.
 236
 237 * New option --ignore-failed-read prevents read-errors from affecting
 238 the exit status.
 239
 240 * New option --checkpoint prints occasional messages as the tape
 241 is being read or written.
 242
 243 * New option --show-omitted-dirs prints the names of directories
 244 omitted from the archive.
 245
 246 * Some tape drives which use a non-standard method of indicating
 247 end-of-tape now work correctly with multi-tape archives.
 248
 249 * --volno-file: Read the volume number used in prompting the user
 250 (but not in recording volume ID's on the archive) from a file.
 251
 252 * When using --multi-volume, you can now give multiple -f arguments;
 253 the various tape drives will get used in sequence and then wrap
 254 around to the beginning.
 255
 256 * Remote archive names no longer have to be in /dev: any file with a
 257 `:' is interpreted as remote.  If new option --force-local is given,
 258 then even archive files with a `:' are considered local.
 259
 260 * New option --atime-preserve restores (if possible) atimes to
 261 their original values after dumping the file.
 262
 263 * No longer does tar confusingly dump "." when you don't tell it
 264 what to dump.
 265
 266 * When extracting directories, tar now correctly restores their
 267 modification and access times.
 268
 269 * Longnames support is redone differently--long name info directly
 270 precedes the long-named file or link in the archive, so you no
 271 longer have to wait for the extract to hit the end of the tape for
 272 long names to work.
 273 \f
 274 Version 1.10 - Michael Bushnell, 1991-07.
 275
 276 * Filename to -G is optional.  -C works right.  Names +newer and
 277 +newer-mtime work right.
 278
 279 * -g is now +incremental, -G is now +listed-incremental.
 280
 281 * Sparse files now work correctly.
 282
 283 * +volume is now called +label.
 284
 285 * +exclude now takes a filename argument, and +exclude-from does
 286 what +exclude used to do.
 287
 288 * Exit status is now correct.
 289
 290 * +totals keeps track of total I/O and prints it when tar exits.
 291
 292 * When using +label with +extract, the label is now a regexp.
 293
 294 * New option +tape-length (-L) does multi-volume handling like BSD
 295 dump: you tell tar how big the tape is and it will prompt at that
 296 point instead of waiting for a write error.
 297
 298 * New backup scripts level-0 and level-1 which might be useful
 299 to people.  They use a file "backup-specs" for information, and
 300 shouldn't need local modification.  These are what we use to do
 301 all our backups at the FSF.
 302 \f
 303 Version 1.09 - Jay Fenlason, 1990-10.
 304 Version 1.08 - Jay Fenlason, 1990-01.
 305 Versions 1.07 back to 1.00 by Jay Fenlason.
 306
 307 * See ChangeLog for more details.