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 1.12.64012 - Paul Eggert, 1999-06-16.
   5
   6 This is an unofficial port of GNU `tar' 1.12 to large file
   7 environments like AIX 4.2, HP-UX 10.20, IRIX 6.2, and Solaris 2.6 that
   8 (among other things) rely on integer system types longer than `long'.
   9 Please send bug reports specific to this unofficial version of GNU `tar'
  10 to <eggert@twinsun.com>.
  11
  12 This is not intended to be a forked release for GNU tar; it's
  13 just an interim experimental release, mostly intended for
  14 large file hosts.  The patches of this
  15 release have all been (or will be) submitted via the usual channels and
  16 they should no longer be needed once the next official release
  17 of GNU tar is out.
  18 \f
  19 Version 1.12 - François Pinard, 1997-04.
  20
  21 Sensitive matters
  22 * Use shell globbing patterns for --label, instead of regular expressions.
  23 * Do not quote anymore internally over the quoting done by the shell.
  24
  25 Output for humans
  26 * Offer internationalisation capabilities of most recent GNU gettext.
  27 * Messages available in many more languages, thanks to all translators!
  28 * Usage of ISO 8601 dates in listings, instead of local American dates.
  29 * More normalisation and cleanup in error messages.
  30
  31 Creation
  32 * For helping using tar with find, offer a --no-recursion option.
  33 * Implement --numeric-owner for ignoring symbolic names at create time.
  34 * New --owner, --group --mode options, still preliminary.
  35 * Recognise creating an archive on /dev/null, so Amanda works faster.
  36 * Object to the creation of an empty archive (like in `tar cf FILE').
  37 * Barely start implementing --posix and POSIXLY_CORRECT.
  38
  39 Extraction
  40 * Make a better job at restoring file and directory attributes.
  41 * Automatically attempt deleting existing files when in the way.
  42 * Option --unlink-first (-U) removes most files prior to extraction.
  43 * Option --recursive-unlink removes non-empty directories when in the way.
  44 * Option --numeric-owner ignores owner/group names, it uses UID/GID instead.
  45 * Use global umask when creating missing intermediate directories.
  46 * When symlinks are not available, extract symbolic links as hard links.
  47 * Diagnose extraction of contiguous files as regular files.
  48 * New --backup, --suffix and --version-control options.
  49
  50 Various changes
  51 * Better support of huge archives with --tape-length and --totals.
  52 * Rename option --read-full-blocks (-B) to --read-full-records (-B).
  53 * Rename option --block-size (-b) to --blocking-factor (-b).
  54 * Rename option --record-number (-R) to --block-number (-R).
  55 * With --block-number (-R), report null blocks and end of file.
  56 * Implement --record-size for introducing a size in bytes.
  57 * Delete --block-compress option and rather decide it automatically.
  58 * Rename option --modification-time to --touch.
  59
  60 Many bugs are squashed, while others still run free.
  61 \f
  62 Version 1.11.8 - François Pinard, 1995-06.
  63
  64 * Messages available in French, German, Portuguese and Swedish.
  65 * The distribution provides a rudimentary Texinfo manual.
  66 * The device defaults to stdin/stdout, unless overridden by the installer.
  67 * Option --sparse (-S) should work on more systems.
  68 * Option --rsh-command may select an alternative remote shell program.
  69
  70 Most changes are internal, and should yield better portability.
  71 \f
  72 Version 1.11.2 - Michael Bushnell, 1993-03.
  73
  74 * Changes in backup scripts: cleaned up considerably; notices error
  75 conditions better over rsh; DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT is now an option in
  76 backup-specs; new file dump-remind is an example of a
  77 DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT.
  78
  79 * Superfluous "Reading dirname" was a bug; fixed.
  80
  81 * Incompatibility problems with a bug on Solaris are fixed.
  82
  83 * New option --gzip (aliases are --ungzip and -z); calls gzip instead
  84 of compress.  Also, --use-compress-program lets you specify any
  85 compress program.  --compress-block is renamed --block-compress and
  86 now requires one of the three compression options to be specified.
  87
  88 * Several error messages are cleaned up.
  89
  90 * Directory owners are now set properly when running as root.
  91
  92 * Provide DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT in backup-specs as a possible option
  93 for --info-script.
  94
  95 * Behave better with broken rmt servers.
  96
  97 * Dump scripts no longer use --atime-preserve; this causes a nasty probem.
  98
  99 * Several Makefile cleanups.
 100 \f
 101 Version 1.11.1 - Michael Bushnell, 1992-09.
 102
 103 * Many bug fixes.
 104 \f
 105 Version 1.11 - Michael Bushnell, 1992-09.
 106 Version 1.10.16 - 1992-07.
 107 Version 1.10.15 - 1992-06.
 108 Version 1.10.14 - 1992-05.
 109 Version 1.10.13 - 1992-01.
 110
 111 * Many bug fixes.
 112
 113 * Now uses GNU standard configure, generated by Autoconf.
 114
 115 * Long options now use `--'; use of `+' is deprecated and support
 116 for it will eventually be removed.
 117
 118 * New option --null causes filenames read by -T to be
 119 null-terminated, and causes -C to be ignored.
 120
 121 * New option --remove-files deletes files (but not directories)
 122 after they are added to the archive.
 123
 124 * New option --ignore-failed-read prevents read-errors from affecting
 125 the exit status.
 126
 127 * New option --checkpoint prints occasional messages as the tape
 128 is being read or written.
 129
 130 * New option --show-omitted-dirs prints the names of directories
 131 omitted from the archive.
 132
 133 * Some tape drives which use a non-standard method of indicating
 134 end-of-tape now work correctly with multi-tape archives.
 135
 136 * --volno-file: Read the volume number used in prompting the user
 137 (but not in recording volume ID's on the archive) from a file.
 138
 139 * When using --multi-volume, you can now give multiple -f arguments;
 140 the various tape drives will get used in sequence and then wrap
 141 around to the beginning.
 142
 143 * Remote archive names no longer have to be in /dev: any file with a
 144 `:' is interpreted as remote.  If new option --force-local is given,
 145 then even archive files with a `:' are considered local.
 146
 147 * New option --atime-preserve restores (if possible) atimes to
 148 their original values after dumping the file.
 149
 150 * No longer does tar confusingly dump "." when you don't tell it
 151 what to dump.
 152
 153 * When extracting directories, tar now correctly restores their
 154 modification and access times.
 155
 156 * Longnames support is redone differently--long name info directly
 157 precedes the long-named file or link in the archive, so you no
 158 longer have to wait for the extract to hit the end of the tape for
 159 long names to work.
 160 \f
 161 Version 1.10 - Michael Bushnell, 1991-07.
 162
 163 * Filename to -G is optional.  -C works right.  Names +newer and
 164 +newer-mtime work right.
 165
 166 * -g is now +incremental, -G is now +listed-incremental.
 167
 168 * Sparse files now work correctly.
 169
 170 * +volume is now called +label.
 171
 172 * +exclude now takes a filename argument, and +exclude-from does
 173 what +exclude used to do.
 174
 175 * Exit status is now correct.
 176
 177 * +totals keeps track of total I/O and prints it when tar exits.
 178
 179 * When using +label with +extract, the label is now a regexp.
 180
 181 * New option +tape-length (-L) does multi-volume handling like BSD
 182 dump: you tell tar how big the tape is and it will prompt at that
 183 point instead of waiting for a write error.
 184
 185 * New backup scripts level-0 and level-1 which might be useful
 186 to people.  They use a file "backup-specs" for information, and
 187 shouldn't need local modification.  These are what we use to do
 188 all our backups at the FSF.
 189 \f
 190 Version 1.09 - Jay Fenlason, 1990-10.
 191 Version 1.08 - Jay Fenlason, 1990-01.
 192 Versions 1.07 back to 1.00 by Jay Fenlason.
 193
 194 * See ChangeLog for more details.