1 GNU tar NEWS - User visible changes.
2 Copyright 1994, 1995-1998, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 version 1.12.64016 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-01.
6 * Support for large files, e.g. files larger than 2 GB on many 32-bit hosts.
7 Also, support for larger uids, device ids, etc.
9 * This release is intended only as a bugfix release. A more ambitious version,
10 with new features, is also available as part of paxutils. Please see:
11 http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/contrib/paxutils/
12 The bug fixes in this release are intended to be merged with paxutils
13 at some point, but they haven't been merged as of this writing.
16 Version 1.12 - François Pinard, 1997-04.
19 * Use shell globbing patterns for --label, instead of regular expressions.
20 * Do not quote anymore internally over the quoting done by the shell.
23 * Offer internationalisation capabilities of most recent GNU gettext.
24 * Messages available in many more languages, thanks to all translators!
25 * Usage of ISO 8601 dates in listings, instead of local American dates.
26 * More normalisation and cleanup in error messages.
29 * For helping using tar with find, offer a --no-recursion option.
30 * Implement --numeric-owner for ignoring symbolic names at create time.
31 * New --owner, --group --mode options, still preliminary.
32 * Recognise creating an archive on /dev/null, so Amanda works faster.
33 * Object to the creation of an empty archive (like in `tar cf FILE').
34 * Barely start implementing --posix and POSIXLY_CORRECT.
37 * Make a better job at restoring file and directory attributes.
38 * Automatically attempt deleting existing files when in the way.
39 * Option --unlink-first (-U) removes most files prior to extraction.
40 * Option --recursive-unlink removes non-empty directories when in the way.
41 * Option --numeric-owner ignores owner/group names, it uses UID/GID instead.
42 * Use global umask when creating missing intermediate directories.
43 * When symlinks are not available, extract symbolic links as hard links.
44 * Diagnose extraction of contiguous files as regular files.
45 * New --backup, --suffix and --version-control options.
48 * Better support of huge archives with --tape-length and --totals.
49 * Rename option --read-full-blocks (-B) to --read-full-records (-B).
50 * Rename option --block-size (-b) to --blocking-factor (-b).
51 * Rename option --record-number (-R) to --block-number (-R).
52 * With --block-number (-R), report null blocks and end of file.
53 * Implement --record-size for introducing a size in bytes.
54 * Delete --block-compress option and rather decide it automatically.
55 * Rename option --modification-time to --touch.
57 Many bugs are squashed, while others still run free.
59 Version 1.11.8 - François Pinard, 1995-06.
61 * Messages available in French, German, Portuguese and Swedish.
62 * The distribution provides a rudimentary Texinfo manual.
63 * The device defaults to stdin/stdout, unless overridden by the installer.
64 * Option --sparse (-S) should work on more systems.
65 * Option --rsh-command may select an alternative remote shell program.
67 Most changes are internal, and should yield better portability.
69 Version 1.11.2 - Michael Bushnell, 1993-03.
71 * Changes in backup scripts: cleaned up considerably; notices error
72 conditions better over rsh; DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT is now an option in
73 backup-specs; new file dump-remind is an example of a
76 * Superfluous "Reading dirname" was a bug; fixed.
78 * Incompatibility problems with a bug on Solaris are fixed.
80 * New option --gzip (aliases are --ungzip and -z); calls gzip instead
81 of compress. Also, --use-compress-program lets you specify any
82 compress program. --compress-block is renamed --block-compress and
83 now requires one of the three compression options to be specified.
85 * Several error messages are cleaned up.
87 * Directory owners are now set properly when running as root.
89 * Provide DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT in backup-specs as a possible option
92 * Behave better with broken rmt servers.
94 * Dump scripts no longer use --atime-preserve; this causes a nasty probem.
96 * Several Makefile cleanups.
98 Version 1.11.1 - Michael Bushnell, 1992-09.
102 Version 1.11 - Michael Bushnell, 1992-09.
103 Version 1.10.16 - 1992-07.
104 Version 1.10.15 - 1992-06.
105 Version 1.10.14 - 1992-05.
106 Version 1.10.13 - 1992-01.
110 * Now uses GNU standard configure, generated by Autoconf.
112 * Long options now use `--'; use of `+' is deprecated and support
113 for it will eventually be removed.
115 * New option --null causes filenames read by -T to be
116 null-terminated, and causes -C to be ignored.
118 * New option --remove-files deletes files (but not directories)
119 after they are added to the archive.
121 * New option --ignore-failed-read prevents read-errors from affecting
124 * New option --checkpoint prints occasional messages as the tape
125 is being read or written.
127 * New option --show-omitted-dirs prints the names of directories
128 omitted from the archive.
130 * Some tape drives which use a non-standard method of indicating
131 end-of-tape now work correctly with multi-tape archives.
133 * --volno-file: Read the volume number used in prompting the user
134 (but not in recording volume ID's on the archive) from a file.
136 * When using --multi-volume, you can now give multiple -f arguments;
137 the various tape drives will get used in sequence and then wrap
138 around to the beginning.
140 * Remote archive names no longer have to be in /dev: any file with a
141 `:' is interpreted as remote. If new option --force-local is given,
142 then even archive files with a `:' are considered local.
144 * New option --atime-preserve restores (if possible) atimes to
145 their original values after dumping the file.
147 * No longer does tar confusingly dump "." when you don't tell it
150 * When extracting directories, tar now correctly restores their
151 modification and access times.
153 * Longnames support is redone differently--long name info directly
154 precedes the long-named file or link in the archive, so you no
155 longer have to wait for the extract to hit the end of the tape for
158 Version 1.10 - Michael Bushnell, 1991-07.
160 * Filename to -G is optional. -C works right. Names +newer and
161 +newer-mtime work right.
163 * -g is now +incremental, -G is now +listed-incremental.
165 * Sparse files now work correctly.
167 * +volume is now called +label.
169 * +exclude now takes a filename argument, and +exclude-from does
170 what +exclude used to do.
172 * Exit status is now correct.
174 * +totals keeps track of total I/O and prints it when tar exits.
176 * When using +label with +extract, the label is now a regexp.
178 * New option +tape-length (-L) does multi-volume handling like BSD
179 dump: you tell tar how big the tape is and it will prompt at that
180 point instead of waiting for a write error.
182 * New backup scripts level-0 and level-1 which might be useful
183 to people. They use a file "backup-specs" for information, and
184 shouldn't need local modification. These are what we use to do
185 all our backups at the FSF.
187 Version 1.09 - Jay Fenlason, 1990-10.
188 Version 1.08 - Jay Fenlason, 1990-01.
189 Versions 1.07 back to 1.00 by Jay Fenlason.
191 * See ChangeLog for more details.