1 GNU tar NEWS - User visible changes.
2 Copyright 1994, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 version 1.13.19 - Paul Eggert, 2001-01-13
6 * The -I option has been withdrawn, as it was buggy and confusing.
7 Eventually it is planned to be reintroduced, with the same meaning as -T.
9 * With an option like -N DATE, if DATE starts with "/" or ".", it is taken
10 to be a file name; the last-modified time of that file is used as the date.
12 version 1.13.18 - Paul Eggert, 2000-10-29
14 * Some security problems have been fixed. `tar -x' now modifies only
15 files under the working directory, unless you also specify an unsafe
16 option like --absolute-names or --overwrite.
18 * The short name of the --bzip option has been changed to -j,
19 and -I is now an alias for -T, for compatibility with Solaris tar.
21 * The manual is now distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
23 * The new environment variable TAR_OPTIONS holds default command-line options.
25 * The --no-recursion option now affects extraction too.
27 * The wording in some diagnostics has been changed slightly.
29 * Snapshot files now record whether each file was accessed via NFS.
30 The new file format is upward- and downward-compatible with the old.
32 * New language supported: da.
34 * Compilation by traditional (K&R) C compilers is no longer supported.
35 If you still use such a compiler, please use GCC instead.
37 * This version of tar works best with GNU gzip test version 1.3 or later.
38 Please see <ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/gzip/>.
40 * `tar --delete -f -' now works again.
42 version 1.13.17 - Paul Eggert, 2000-01-07.
44 * `tar --delete -f -' is no longer allowed; it was too buggy.
45 * Diagnostic messages have been made more regular and consistent.
47 version 1.13.16 - Paul Eggert, 1999-12-13.
49 * By default, tar now refuses to overwrite an existing file when
50 extracting files from an archive; instead, it removes the file
51 before extracting it. If the existing file is a symbolic link, the
52 link is removed and not the pointed-to file. There is one
53 exception: existing nonempty directories are not removed, nor are
54 their ownerships or permissions extracted. This fixes some
55 longstanding security problems.
57 The new --overwrite option enables the old default behavior.
59 For regular files, tar implements this change by using the O_EXCL
60 option of `open' to ensure that it creates the file; if this fails, it
61 removes the file and tries again. This is similar to the behavior of
62 the --unlink-first option, but it is faster in the common case of
63 extracting a new directory.
65 * By default, tar now ignores file names containing a component of `..'
66 when extracting, and warns about such file names when creating an archive.
67 To enable the old behavior, use the -P or --absolute-names option.
69 * Tar now handles file names with multibyte encodings (e.g. UTF-8, Shift-JIS)
70 correctly. It relies on the mbrtowc function to handle multibytes.
72 * The file generated by -g or --listed-incremental now uses a format
73 that is independent of locale, so that users need not worry about
74 locale when restoring a backup. This is needed for proper support
75 of multibyte characters. Old-format files can still be read, and
76 older versions of GNU tar can read new-format files, unless member
77 names have multibyte chars.
79 * Many diagnostics have been changed slightly, so that file names are
80 now output unambiguously. File names in diagnostics now are either
81 `quoted like this' (in the default C locale) or are followed by
82 colon, newline, or space, depending on context. Unprintable
83 characters are escaped with a C-like backslash conventions.
84 Terminating characters (e.g. close-quote, colon, newline)
85 are also escaped as needed.
87 * tar now ignores socket files when creating an archive.
88 Previously tar archived sockets as fifos, which caused problems.
90 version 1.13.15 - Paul Eggert, 1999-12-03.
92 * If a file's ctime changes when being archived, report an error.
93 Previously tar looked at mtime, which missed some errors.
95 version 1.13.14 - Paul Eggert, 1999-11-07.
97 * New translations ja, pt_BR.
98 * New options --help and --version for rmt.
99 * Ignore Solaris door files when creating an archive.
101 version 1.13.13 - Paul Eggert, 1999-10-11.
103 * Invalid headers in tar files now elicit errors, not just warnings.
104 * `tar --version' output conforms to the latest GNU coding standards.
105 * If you specify an invalid date, `tar' now substitutes (time_t) -1.
106 * `configure --with-dmalloc' is no longer available.
108 version 1.13.12 - Paul Eggert, 1999-09-24.
110 * `tar' now supports hard links to symbolic links.
112 * New options --no-same-owner, --no-same-permissions.
114 * --total now also outputs a human-readable size, and a throughput value.
116 * `tar' now uses two's-complement base-256 when outputting header
117 values that are out of the range of the standard unsigned base-8
118 format. This affects archive members with negative or huge time
119 stamps or uids, and archive members 8 GB or larger. The new tar
120 archives cannot be read by traditional tar, or by older versions of
121 GNU tar. Use the --old-archive option to revert to the old
122 behavior, which uses unportable representations for negative values,
123 and which rejects large files.
125 * On 32-bit hosts, `tar' now assumes that an incoming time stamp T in
126 the range 2**31 <= T < 2**32 represents the negative time (T -
127 2**32). This behavior is nonstandard and is not portable to 64-bit
128 time_t hosts, so `tar' issues a warning.
130 * `tar' no longer gives up extracting immediately upon discovering
131 that an archive contains garbage at the end. It attempts to extract
132 as many files as possible from the good data before the garbage.
134 * A read error now causes a nonzero exit status, not just a warning.
136 * Some diagnostics have been reworded for consistency.
139 version 1.13.11 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-23.
141 * The short name of the --bzip option has been changed to -I,
142 for compatibility with paxutils.
144 * -T /dev/null now matches nothing; previously, it matched anything
145 if no explicit operands were given.
147 * The `--' option now works the same as with other GNU utilities;
148 it causes later operands to be interpreted as file names, not options,
149 even if they begin with `-'.
151 * For the --newer and --after-date options, the table of time zone
152 abbreviations like `EST' has been updated to match current practice.
153 Also, local time abbreviations are now recognized, even if they are
154 not in tar's hardwired table. Remember, though, that you should use
155 numeric UTC offsets like `-0500' instead of abbreviations like
156 `EST', as abbreviations are not standardized and are ambiguous.
159 version 1.13.10 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-20.
161 * `tar' now uses signed base-64 when outputting header values that are
162 out of the range of the standard unsigned base-8 format. [This
163 change was superseded in 1.13.12, described above.]
166 version 1.13.9 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-18.
168 * `tar' now writes two zero blocks at end-of-archive instead of just one.
169 POSIX.1 requires this, and some other `tar' implementations check for it.
171 * `tar' no longer silently accepts a block containing nonzero checksum bytes
174 * `tar' now reads buggy tar files that have a null byte at the start of a
175 numeric header field.
178 version 1.13.8 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-16.
180 * For compatibility with traditional `tar', intermediate directories
181 created automatically by root are no longer given the uid and gid of
182 the original file or directory.
185 version 1.13.7 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-14.
187 * --listed-incremental and --newer are now incompatible options.
189 * When creating an archive, leading `./' is no longer stripped,
190 to match traditional tar's behavior (and simplify the documentation).
192 * --diff without --absolute-names no longer falls back on absolute names.
195 version 1.13.6 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-11.
197 * An --exclude pattern containing / now excludes a file only if it matches an
198 initial prefix of the file name; a pattern without / continues to
199 exclude a file if it matches any file name component.
201 * The protocol for talking to rmt has been extended slightly.
202 Open flags are now communicated in symbolic format as well as numeric.
203 The symbolic format (e.g. "O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC") is for portability
204 when rmt is operating on a different operating system from tar.
205 The numeric format is retained, and rmt uses it if symbolic format is absent,
206 for backward compatibility with older versions of tar and rmt.
208 * When writing GNU tar format headers, tar now uses signed base-64
209 for values that cannot be represented in unsigned octal.
210 This supports larger files (2**66 - 1 bytes instead of 2**33 - 1 bytes),
211 larger uids, negative time stamps, etc.
213 * When extracting files with unknown ownership, tar now looks up the
214 uid and gid "nobody" on hosts whose headers do not define UID_NOBODY
215 and GID_NOBODY, and falls back on uid/gid -2 if there is no "nobody".
217 * tar -t --numeric-owner now prints numeric uids and gids, not symbolic.
219 * New option -y or --bzip2 for bzip2 compression, by popular request.
222 version 1.13.5 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-20.
224 * Do the delayed updates of file metadata even after a fatal error.
227 version 1.13.4 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-20.
229 * Do not chmod unless we are root or the -p option was given;
230 this matches historical practice.
233 version 1.13.3 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-16.
235 * A path name is excluded if any of its file name components matches an
236 excluded pattern, even if the path name was specified on the command line.
237 Also see 1.13.6 for later changes in this area.
240 version 1.13.2 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-14.
242 * Bug reporting address changed to <bug-tar@gnu.org>.
245 version 1.13.1 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-12.
249 version 1.13 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-08.
251 * Support for large files, e.g. files larger than 2 GB on many 32-bit hosts.
252 Also, support for larger uids, device ids, etc.
253 * Many bug fixes and porting fixes.
254 * This release is only for fixes. A more ambitious test release,
255 with new features, is available as part of the paxutils. Please see:
256 ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/paxutils/
257 The fixes in this release are intended to be merged with paxutils
258 at some point, but they haven't been merged yet.
259 * An interim GNU tar alpha had new --bzip2 and --ending-file options,
260 but they have been removed to maintain compatibility with paxutils.
261 Please try --use=bzip2 instead of --bzip2.
263 Version 1.12 - François Pinard, 1997-04.
266 * Use shell globbing patterns for --label, instead of regular expressions.
267 * Do not quote anymore internally over the quoting done by the shell.
270 * Offer internationalization capabilities of most recent GNU gettext.
271 * Messages available in many more languages, thanks to all translators!
272 * Usage of ISO 8601 dates in listings, instead of local American dates.
273 * More normalization and cleanup in error messages.
276 * For helping using tar with find, offer a --no-recursion option.
277 * Implement --numeric-owner for ignoring symbolic names at create time.
278 * New --owner, --group --mode options, still preliminary.
279 * Recognize creating an archive on /dev/null, so Amanda works faster.
280 * Object to the creation of an empty archive (like in `tar cf FILE').
281 * Barely start implementing --posix and POSIXLY_CORRECT.
284 * Make a better job at restoring file and directory attributes.
285 * Automatically attempt deleting existing files when in the way.
286 * Option --unlink-first (-U) removes most files prior to extraction.
287 * Option --recursive-unlink removes non-empty directories when in the way.
288 * Option --numeric-owner ignores owner/group names, it uses UID/GID instead.
289 * Use global umask when creating missing intermediate directories.
290 * When symlinks are not available, extract symbolic links as hard links.
291 * Diagnose extraction of contiguous files as regular files.
292 * New --backup, --suffix and --version-control options.
295 * Better support of huge archives with --tape-length and --totals.
296 * Rename option --read-full-blocks (-B) to --read-full-records (-B).
297 * Rename option --block-size (-b) to --blocking-factor (-b).
298 * Rename option --record-number (-R) to --block-number (-R).
299 * With --block-number (-R), report null blocks and end of file.
300 * Implement --record-size for introducing a size in bytes.
301 * Delete --block-compress option and rather decide it automatically.
302 * Rename option --modification-time to --touch.
304 Many bugs are squashed, while others still run free.
306 Version 1.11.8 - François Pinard, 1995-06.
308 * Messages available in French, German, Portuguese and Swedish.
309 * The distribution provides a rudimentary Texinfo manual.
310 * The device defaults to stdin/stdout, unless overridden by the installer.
311 * Option --sparse (-S) should work on more systems.
312 * Option --rsh-command may select an alternative remote shell program.
314 Most changes are internal, and should yield better portability.
316 Version 1.11.2 - Michael Bushnell, 1993-03.
318 * Changes in backup scripts: cleaned up considerably; notices error
319 conditions better over rsh; DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT is now an option in
320 backup-specs; new file dump-remind is an example of a
323 * Superfluous "Reading dirname" was a bug; fixed.
325 * Incompatibility problems with a bug on Solaris are fixed.
327 * New option --gzip (aliases are --ungzip and -z); calls gzip instead
328 of compress. Also, --use-compress-program lets you specify any
329 compress program. --compress-block is renamed --block-compress and
330 now requires one of the three compression options to be specified.
332 * Several error messages are cleaned up.
334 * Directory owners are now set properly when running as root.
336 * Provide DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT in backup-specs as a possible option
339 * Behave better with broken rmt servers.
341 * Dump scripts no longer use --atime-preserve; this causes a nasty probem.
343 * Several Makefile cleanups.
345 Version 1.11.1 - Michael Bushnell, 1992-09.
349 Version 1.11 - Michael Bushnell, 1992-09.
350 Version 1.10.16 - 1992-07.
351 Version 1.10.15 - 1992-06.
352 Version 1.10.14 - 1992-05.
353 Version 1.10.13 - 1992-01.
357 * Now uses GNU standard configure, generated by Autoconf.
359 * Long options now use `--'; use of `+' is deprecated and support
360 for it will eventually be removed.
362 * New option --null causes filenames read by -T to be
363 null-terminated, and causes -C to be ignored.
365 * New option --remove-files deletes files (but not directories)
366 after they are added to the archive.
368 * New option --ignore-failed-read prevents read-errors from affecting
371 * New option --checkpoint prints occasional messages as the tape
372 is being read or written.
374 * New option --show-omitted-dirs prints the names of directories
375 omitted from the archive.
377 * Some tape drives which use a non-standard method of indicating
378 end-of-tape now work correctly with multi-tape archives.
380 * --volno-file: Read the volume number used in prompting the user
381 (but not in recording volume ID's on the archive) from a file.
383 * When using --multi-volume, you can now give multiple -f arguments;
384 the various tape drives will get used in sequence and then wrap
385 around to the beginning.
387 * Remote archive names no longer have to be in /dev: any file with a
388 `:' is interpreted as remote. If new option --force-local is given,
389 then even archive files with a `:' are considered local.
391 * New option --atime-preserve restores (if possible) atimes to
392 their original values after dumping the file.
394 * No longer does tar confusingly dump "." when you don't tell it
397 * When extracting directories, tar now correctly restores their
398 modification and access times.
400 * Longnames support is redone differently--long name info directly
401 precedes the long-named file or link in the archive, so you no
402 longer have to wait for the extract to hit the end of the tape for
405 Version 1.10 - Michael Bushnell, 1991-07.
407 * Filename to -G is optional. -C works right. Names +newer and
408 +newer-mtime work right.
410 * -g is now +incremental, -G is now +listed-incremental.
412 * Sparse files now work correctly.
414 * +volume is now called +label.
416 * +exclude now takes a filename argument, and +exclude-from does
417 what +exclude used to do.
419 * Exit status is now correct.
421 * +totals keeps track of total I/O and prints it when tar exits.
423 * When using +label with +extract, the label is now a regexp.
425 * New option +tape-length (-L) does multi-volume handling like BSD
426 dump: you tell tar how big the tape is and it will prompt at that
427 point instead of waiting for a write error.
429 * New backup scripts level-0 and level-1 which might be useful
430 to people. They use a file "backup-specs" for information, and
431 shouldn't need local modification. These are what we use to do
432 all our backups at the FSF.
434 Version 1.09 - Jay Fenlason, 1990-10.
435 Version 1.08 - Jay Fenlason, 1990-01.
436 Versions 1.07 back to 1.00 by Jay Fenlason.
438 * See ChangeLog for more details.