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