1 GNU tar NEWS - User visible changes.
2 Copyright 1994, 1995-1998, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 version 1.13.2 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-14.
6 * Bug reporting address changed to <bug-tar@gnu.org>.
9 version 1.13.1 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-12.
13 version 1.13 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-08.
15 * Support for large files, e.g. files larger than 2 GB on many 32-bit hosts.
16 Also, support for larger uids, device ids, etc.
17 * Many bug fixes and porting fixes.
18 * This release is only for fixes. A more ambitious test release,
19 with new features, is available as part of the paxutils. Please see:
20 http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/contrib/paxutils/
21 The fixes in this release are intended to be merged with paxutils
22 at some point, but they haven't been merged yet.
23 * An interim GNU tar alpha had new --bzip2 and --ending-file options,
24 but they have been removed to maintain compatibility with paxutils.
25 Please try --use=bzip2 instead of --bzip2.
27 Version 1.12 - François Pinard, 1997-04.
30 * Use shell globbing patterns for --label, instead of regular expressions.
31 * Do not quote anymore internally over the quoting done by the shell.
34 * Offer internationalisation capabilities of most recent GNU gettext.
35 * Messages available in many more languages, thanks to all translators!
36 * Usage of ISO 8601 dates in listings, instead of local American dates.
37 * More normalisation and cleanup in error messages.
40 * For helping using tar with find, offer a --no-recursion option.
41 * Implement --numeric-owner for ignoring symbolic names at create time.
42 * New --owner, --group --mode options, still preliminary.
43 * Recognise creating an archive on /dev/null, so Amanda works faster.
44 * Object to the creation of an empty archive (like in `tar cf FILE').
45 * Barely start implementing --posix and POSIXLY_CORRECT.
48 * Make a better job at restoring file and directory attributes.
49 * Automatically attempt deleting existing files when in the way.
50 * Option --unlink-first (-U) removes most files prior to extraction.
51 * Option --recursive-unlink removes non-empty directories when in the way.
52 * Option --numeric-owner ignores owner/group names, it uses UID/GID instead.
53 * Use global umask when creating missing intermediate directories.
54 * When symlinks are not available, extract symbolic links as hard links.
55 * Diagnose extraction of contiguous files as regular files.
56 * New --backup, --suffix and --version-control options.
59 * Better support of huge archives with --tape-length and --totals.
60 * Rename option --read-full-blocks (-B) to --read-full-records (-B).
61 * Rename option --block-size (-b) to --blocking-factor (-b).
62 * Rename option --record-number (-R) to --block-number (-R).
63 * With --block-number (-R), report null blocks and end of file.
64 * Implement --record-size for introducing a size in bytes.
65 * Delete --block-compress option and rather decide it automatically.
66 * Rename option --modification-time to --touch.
68 Many bugs are squashed, while others still run free.
70 Version 1.11.8 - François Pinard, 1995-06.
72 * Messages available in French, German, Portuguese and Swedish.
73 * The distribution provides a rudimentary Texinfo manual.
74 * The device defaults to stdin/stdout, unless overridden by the installer.
75 * Option --sparse (-S) should work on more systems.
76 * Option --rsh-command may select an alternative remote shell program.
78 Most changes are internal, and should yield better portability.
80 Version 1.11.2 - Michael Bushnell, 1993-03.
82 * Changes in backup scripts: cleaned up considerably; notices error
83 conditions better over rsh; DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT is now an option in
84 backup-specs; new file dump-remind is an example of a
87 * Superfluous "Reading dirname" was a bug; fixed.
89 * Incompatibility problems with a bug on Solaris are fixed.
91 * New option --gzip (aliases are --ungzip and -z); calls gzip instead
92 of compress. Also, --use-compress-program lets you specify any
93 compress program. --compress-block is renamed --block-compress and
94 now requires one of the three compression options to be specified.
96 * Several error messages are cleaned up.
98 * Directory owners are now set properly when running as root.
100 * Provide DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT in backup-specs as a possible option
103 * Behave better with broken rmt servers.
105 * Dump scripts no longer use --atime-preserve; this causes a nasty probem.
107 * Several Makefile cleanups.
109 Version 1.11.1 - Michael Bushnell, 1992-09.
113 Version 1.11 - Michael Bushnell, 1992-09.
114 Version 1.10.16 - 1992-07.
115 Version 1.10.15 - 1992-06.
116 Version 1.10.14 - 1992-05.
117 Version 1.10.13 - 1992-01.
121 * Now uses GNU standard configure, generated by Autoconf.
123 * Long options now use `--'; use of `+' is deprecated and support
124 for it will eventually be removed.
126 * New option --null causes filenames read by -T to be
127 null-terminated, and causes -C to be ignored.
129 * New option --remove-files deletes files (but not directories)
130 after they are added to the archive.
132 * New option --ignore-failed-read prevents read-errors from affecting
135 * New option --checkpoint prints occasional messages as the tape
136 is being read or written.
138 * New option --show-omitted-dirs prints the names of directories
139 omitted from the archive.
141 * Some tape drives which use a non-standard method of indicating
142 end-of-tape now work correctly with multi-tape archives.
144 * --volno-file: Read the volume number used in prompting the user
145 (but not in recording volume ID's on the archive) from a file.
147 * When using --multi-volume, you can now give multiple -f arguments;
148 the various tape drives will get used in sequence and then wrap
149 around to the beginning.
151 * Remote archive names no longer have to be in /dev: any file with a
152 `:' is interpreted as remote. If new option --force-local is given,
153 then even archive files with a `:' are considered local.
155 * New option --atime-preserve restores (if possible) atimes to
156 their original values after dumping the file.
158 * No longer does tar confusingly dump "." when you don't tell it
161 * When extracting directories, tar now correctly restores their
162 modification and access times.
164 * Longnames support is redone differently--long name info directly
165 precedes the long-named file or link in the archive, so you no
166 longer have to wait for the extract to hit the end of the tape for
169 Version 1.10 - Michael Bushnell, 1991-07.
171 * Filename to -G is optional. -C works right. Names +newer and
172 +newer-mtime work right.
174 * -g is now +incremental, -G is now +listed-incremental.
176 * Sparse files now work correctly.
178 * +volume is now called +label.
180 * +exclude now takes a filename argument, and +exclude-from does
181 what +exclude used to do.
183 * Exit status is now correct.
185 * +totals keeps track of total I/O and prints it when tar exits.
187 * When using +label with +extract, the label is now a regexp.
189 * New option +tape-length (-L) does multi-volume handling like BSD
190 dump: you tell tar how big the tape is and it will prompt at that
191 point instead of waiting for a write error.
193 * New backup scripts level-0 and level-1 which might be useful
194 to people. They use a file "backup-specs" for information, and
195 shouldn't need local modification. These are what we use to do
196 all our backups at the FSF.
198 Version 1.09 - Jay Fenlason, 1990-10.
199 Version 1.08 - Jay Fenlason, 1990-01.
200 Versions 1.07 back to 1.00 by Jay Fenlason.
202 * See ChangeLog for more details.