1 GNU tar NEWS - User visible changes.
2 Copyright © 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 Version 1.12 - François Pinard, 1997-04.
7 * Use shell globbing patterns for --label, instead of regular expressions.
8 * Do not quote anymore internally over the quoting done by the shell.
11 * Offer internationalisation capabilities of most recent GNU gettext.
12 * Messages available in many more languages, thanks to all translators!
13 * Usage of ISO 8601 dates in listings, instead of local American dates.
14 * More normalisation and cleanup in error messages.
17 * For helping using tar with find, offer a --no-recursion option.
18 * Implement --numeric-owner for ignoring symbolic names at create time.
19 * New --owner, --group --mode options, still preliminary.
20 * Recognise creating an archive on /dev/null, so Amanda works faster.
21 * Object to the creation of an empty archive (like in `tar cf FILE').
22 * Barely start implementing --posix and POSIXLY_CORRECT.
25 * Make a better job at restoring file and directory attributes.
26 * Automatically attempt deleting existing files when in the way.
27 * Option --unlink-first (-U) removes most files prior to extraction.
28 * Option --recursive-unlink removes non-empty directories when in the way.
29 * Option --numeric-owner ignores owner/group names, it uses UID/GID instead.
30 * Use global umask when creating missing intermediate directories.
31 * When symlinks are not available, extract symbolic links as hard links.
32 * Diagnose extraction of contiguous files as regular files.
33 * New --backup, --suffix and --version-control options.
36 * Better support of huge archives with --tape-length and --totals.
37 * Rename option --read-full-blocks (-B) to --read-full-records (-B).
38 * Rename option --block-size (-b) to --blocking-factor (-b).
39 * Rename option --record-number (-R) to --block-number (-R).
40 * With --block-number (-R), report null blocks and end of file.
41 * Implement --record-size for introducing a size in bytes.
42 * Delete --block-compress option and rather decide it automatically.
43 * Rename option --modification-time to --touch.
45 Many bugs are squashed, while others still run free.
47 Version 1.11.8 - François Pinard, 1995-06.
49 * Messages available in French, German, Portuguese and Swedish.
50 * The distribution provides a rudimentary Texinfo manual.
51 * The device defaults to stdin/stdout, unless overridden by the installer.
52 * Option --sparse (-S) should work on more systems.
53 * Option --rsh-command may select an alternative remote shell program.
55 Most changes are internal, and should yield better portability.
57 Version 1.11.2 - Michael Bushnell, 1993-03.
59 * Changes in backup scripts: cleaned up considerably; notices error
60 conditions better over rsh; DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT is now an option in
61 backup-specs; new file dump-remind is an example of a
64 * Superfluous "Reading dirname" was a bug; fixed.
66 * Incompatibility problems with a bug on Solaris are fixed.
68 * New option --gzip (aliases are --ungzip and -z); calls gzip instead
69 of compress. Also, --use-compress-program lets you specify any
70 compress program. --compress-block is renamed --block-compress and
71 now requires one of the three compression options to be specified.
73 * Several error messages are cleaned up.
75 * Directory owners are now set properly when running as root.
77 * Provide DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT in backup-specs as a possible option
80 * Behave better with broken rmt servers.
82 * Dump scripts no longer use --atime-preserve; this causes a nasty probem.
84 * Several Makefile cleanups.
86 Version 1.11.1 - Michael Bushnell, 1992-09.
90 Version 1.11 - Michael Bushnell, 1992-09.
91 Version 1.10.16 - 1992-07.
92 Version 1.10.15 - 1992-06.
93 Version 1.10.14 - 1992-05.
94 Version 1.10.13 - 1992-01.
98 * Now uses GNU standard configure, generated by Autoconf.
100 * Long options now use `--'; use of `+' is deprecated and support
101 for it will eventually be removed.
103 * New option --null causes filenames read by -T to be
104 null-terminated, and causes -C to be ignored.
106 * New option --remove-files deletes files (but not directories)
107 after they are added to the archive.
109 * New option --ignore-failed-read prevents read-errors from affecting
112 * New option --checkpoint prints occasional messages as the tape
113 is being read or written.
115 * New option --show-omitted-dirs prints the names of directories
116 omitted from the archive.
118 * Some tape drives which use a non-standard method of indicating
119 end-of-tape now work correctly with multi-tape archives.
121 * --volno-file: Read the volume number used in prompting the user
122 (but not in recording volume ID's on the archive) from a file.
124 * When using --multi-volume, you can now give multiple -f arguments;
125 the various tape drives will get used in sequence and then wrap
126 around to the beginning.
128 * Remote archive names no longer have to be in /dev: any file with a
129 `:' is interpreted as remote. If new option --force-local is given,
130 then even archive files with a `:' are considered local.
132 * New option --atime-preserve restores (if possible) atimes to
133 their original values after dumping the file.
135 * No longer does tar confusingly dump "." when you don't tell it
138 * When extracting directories, tar now correctly restores their
139 modification and access times.
141 * Longnames support is redone differently--long name info directly
142 precedes the long-named file or link in the archive, so you no
143 longer have to wait for the extract to hit the end of the tape for
146 Version 1.10 - Michael Bushnell, 1991-07.
148 * Filename to -G is optional. -C works right. Names +newer and
149 +newer-mtime work right.
151 * -g is now +incremental, -G is now +listed-incremental.
153 * Sparse files now work correctly.
155 * +volume is now called +label.
157 * +exclude now takes a filename argument, and +exclude-from does
158 what +exclude used to do.
160 * Exit status is now correct.
162 * +totals keeps track of total I/O and prints it when tar exits.
164 * When using +label with +extract, the label is now a regexp.
166 * New option +tape-length (-L) does multi-volume handling like BSD
167 dump: you tell tar how big the tape is and it will prompt at that
168 point instead of waiting for a write error.
170 * New backup scripts level-0 and level-1 which might be useful
171 to people. They use a file "backup-specs" for information, and
172 shouldn't need local modification. These are what we use to do
173 all our backups at the FSF.
175 Version 1.09 - Jay Fenlason, 1990-10.
176 Version 1.08 - Jay Fenlason, 1990-01.
177 Versions 1.07 back to 1.00 by Jay Fenlason.
179 * See ChangeLog for more details.