1 GNU tar NEWS - User visible changes.
2 Copyright 1994, 1995-1998, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 version 1.13.16 - Paul Eggert, 1999-12-13.
6 * By default, tar now refuses to overwrite existing files when
7 extracting files from an archive; instead, it removes them before
8 extracting. There is one exception: existing nonempty directories
9 are not removed, nor are their ownerships or permissions extracted.
10 This fixes some longstanding security problems.
12 The new --overwrite option enables the old default behavior.
14 For regular files, tar implements this change by using the O_EXCL
15 option of `open' to ensure that it creates the file; if this fails, it
16 removes the file and tries again. This is similar to the behavior of
17 the --unlink-first option, but it is faster in the common case of
18 extracting a new directory.
20 * By default, tar now ignores file names containing a component of `..'
21 when extracting, and warns about such file names when creating an archive.
22 To enable the old behavior, use the -P or --absolute-names option.
24 * Tar now handles file names with multibyte encodings (e.g. UTF-8, Shift-JIS)
25 correctly. It relies on the mbrtowc function to handle multibytes.
27 * The file generated by -g or --listed-incremental now uses a format
28 that is independent of locale, so that users need not worry about
29 locale when restoring a backup. This is needed for proper support
30 of multibyte characters. Old-format files can still be read, and
31 older versions of GNU tar can read new-format files, unless member
32 names have multibyte chars.
34 * Many diagnostics have been changed slightly, so that file names are
35 now output unambiguously. File names in diagnostics now are either
36 `quoted like this' (in the default C locale) or are followed by
37 colon, newline, or space, depending on context. Unprintable
38 characters are escaped with a C-like backslash conventions.
39 Terminating characters (e.g. close-quote, colon, newline)
40 are also escaped as needed.
42 * tar now ignores socket files when creating an archive.
43 Previously tar archived sockets as fifos, which caused problems.
45 version 1.13.15 - Paul Eggert, 1999-12-03.
47 * If a file's ctime changes when being archived, report an error.
48 Previously tar looked at mtime, which missed some errors.
50 version 1.13.14 - Paul Eggert, 1999-11-07.
52 * New translations ja, pt_BR.
53 * New options --help and --version for rmt.
54 * Ignore Solaris door files when creating an archive.
56 version 1.13.13 - Paul Eggert, 1999-10-11.
58 * Invalid headers in tar files now elicit errors, not just warnings.
59 * `tar --version' output conforms to the latest GNU coding standards.
60 * If you specify an invalid date, `tar' now substitutes (time_t) -1.
61 * `configure --with-dmalloc' is no longer available.
63 version 1.13.12 - Paul Eggert, 1999-09-24.
65 * `tar' now supports hard links to symbolic links.
67 * New options --no-same-owner, --no-same-permissions.
69 * --total now also outputs a human-readable size, and a throughput value.
71 * `tar' now uses two's-complement base-256 when outputting header
72 values that are out of the range of the standard unsigned base-8
73 format. This affects archive members with negative or huge time
74 stamps or uids, and archive members 8 GB or larger. The new tar
75 archives cannot be read by traditional tar, or by older versions of
76 GNU tar. Use the --old-archive option to revert to the old
77 behavior, which uses unportable representations for negative values,
78 and which rejects large files.
80 * On 32-bit hosts, `tar' now assumes that an incoming time stamp T in
81 the range 2**31 <= T < 2**32 represents the negative time (T -
82 2**32). This behavior is nonstandard and is not portable to 64-bit
83 time_t hosts, so `tar' issues a warning.
85 * `tar' no longer gives up extracting immediately upon discovering
86 that an archive contains garbage at the end. It attempts to extract
87 as many files as possible from the good data before the garbage.
89 * A read error now causes a nonzero exit status, not just a warning.
91 * Some diagnostics have been reworded for consistency.
94 version 1.13.11 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-23.
96 * The short name of the --bzip option has been changed to -I,
97 for compatibility with paxutils.
99 * -T /dev/null now matches nothing; previously, it matched anything
100 if no explicit operands were given.
102 * The `--' option now works the same as with other GNU utilities;
103 it causes later operands to be interpreted as file names, not options,
104 even if they begin with `-'.
106 * For the --newer and --after-date options, the table of time zone
107 abbreviations like `EST' has been updated to match current practice.
108 Also, local time abbreviations are now recognized, even if they are
109 not in tar's hardwired table. Remember, though, that you should use
110 numeric UTC offsets like `-0500' instead of abbreviations like
111 `EST', as abbreviations are not standardized and are ambiguous.
114 version 1.13.10 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-20.
116 * `tar' now uses signed base-64 when outputting header values that are
117 out of the range of the standard unsigned base-8 format. [This
118 change was superseded in 1.13.12, described above.]
121 version 1.13.9 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-18.
123 * `tar' now writes two zero blocks at end-of-archive instead of just one.
124 POSIX.1 requires this, and some other `tar' implementations check for it.
126 * `tar' no longer silently accepts a block containing nonzero checksum bytes
129 * `tar' now reads buggy tar files that have a null byte at the start of a
130 numeric header field.
133 version 1.13.8 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-16.
135 * For compatibility with traditional `tar', intermediate directories
136 created automatically by root are no longer given the uid and gid of
137 the original file or directory.
140 version 1.13.7 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-14.
142 * --listed-incremental and --newer are now incompatible options.
144 * When creating an archive, leading `./' is no longer stripped,
145 to match traditional tar's behavior (and simplify the documentation).
147 * --diff without --absolute-names no longer falls back on absolute names.
150 version 1.13.6 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-11.
152 * An --exclude pattern containing / now excludes a file only if it matches an
153 initial prefix of the file name; a pattern without / continues to
154 exclude a file if it matches any file name component.
156 * The protocol for talking to rmt has been extended slightly.
157 Open flags are now communicated in symbolic format as well as numeric.
158 The symbolic format (e.g. "O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC" is for portability
159 when rmt is operating on a different operating system from tar.
160 The numeric format is retained, and rmt uses it if symbolic format is absent,
161 for backward compatibility with older versions of tar and rmt.
163 * When writing GNU tar format headers, tar now uses signed base-64
164 for values that cannot be represented in unsigned octal.
165 This supports larger files (2**66 - 1 bytes instead of 2**33 - 1 bytes),
166 larger uids, negative time stamps, etc.
168 * When extracting files with unknown ownership, tar now looks up the
169 uid and gid "nobody" on hosts whose headers do not define UID_NOBODY
170 and GID_NOBODY, and falls back on uid/gid -2 if there is no "nobody".
172 * tar -t --numeric-owner now prints numeric uids and gids, not symbolic.
174 * New option -y or --bzip2 for bzip2 compression, by popular request.
177 version 1.13.5 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-20.
179 * Do the delayed updates of file metadata even after a fatal error.
182 version 1.13.4 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-20.
184 * Do not chmod unless we are root or the -p option was given;
185 this matches historical practice.
188 version 1.13.3 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-16.
190 * A path name is excluded if any of its file name components matches an
191 excluded pattern, even if the path name was specified on the command line.
192 Also see 1.13.6 for later changes in this area.
195 version 1.13.2 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-14.
197 * Bug reporting address changed to <bug-tar@gnu.org>.
200 version 1.13.1 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-12.
204 version 1.13 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-08.
206 * Support for large files, e.g. files larger than 2 GB on many 32-bit hosts.
207 Also, support for larger uids, device ids, etc.
208 * Many bug fixes and porting fixes.
209 * This release is only for fixes. A more ambitious test release,
210 with new features, is available as part of the paxutils. Please see:
211 http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/contrib/paxutils/
212 The fixes in this release are intended to be merged with paxutils
213 at some point, but they haven't been merged yet.
214 * An interim GNU tar alpha had new --bzip2 and --ending-file options,
215 but they have been removed to maintain compatibility with paxutils.
216 Please try --use=bzip2 instead of --bzip2.
218 Version 1.12 - François Pinard, 1997-04.
221 * Use shell globbing patterns for --label, instead of regular expressions.
222 * Do not quote anymore internally over the quoting done by the shell.
225 * Offer internationalization capabilities of most recent GNU gettext.
226 * Messages available in many more languages, thanks to all translators!
227 * Usage of ISO 8601 dates in listings, instead of local American dates.
228 * More normalization and cleanup in error messages.
231 * For helping using tar with find, offer a --no-recursion option.
232 * Implement --numeric-owner for ignoring symbolic names at create time.
233 * New --owner, --group --mode options, still preliminary.
234 * Recognize creating an archive on /dev/null, so Amanda works faster.
235 * Object to the creation of an empty archive (like in `tar cf FILE').
236 * Barely start implementing --posix and POSIXLY_CORRECT.
239 * Make a better job at restoring file and directory attributes.
240 * Automatically attempt deleting existing files when in the way.
241 * Option --unlink-first (-U) removes most files prior to extraction.
242 * Option --recursive-unlink removes non-empty directories when in the way.
243 * Option --numeric-owner ignores owner/group names, it uses UID/GID instead.
244 * Use global umask when creating missing intermediate directories.
245 * When symlinks are not available, extract symbolic links as hard links.
246 * Diagnose extraction of contiguous files as regular files.
247 * New --backup, --suffix and --version-control options.
250 * Better support of huge archives with --tape-length and --totals.
251 * Rename option --read-full-blocks (-B) to --read-full-records (-B).
252 * Rename option --block-size (-b) to --blocking-factor (-b).
253 * Rename option --record-number (-R) to --block-number (-R).
254 * With --block-number (-R), report null blocks and end of file.
255 * Implement --record-size for introducing a size in bytes.
256 * Delete --block-compress option and rather decide it automatically.
257 * Rename option --modification-time to --touch.
259 Many bugs are squashed, while others still run free.
261 Version 1.11.8 - François Pinard, 1995-06.
263 * Messages available in French, German, Portuguese and Swedish.
264 * The distribution provides a rudimentary Texinfo manual.
265 * The device defaults to stdin/stdout, unless overridden by the installer.
266 * Option --sparse (-S) should work on more systems.
267 * Option --rsh-command may select an alternative remote shell program.
269 Most changes are internal, and should yield better portability.
271 Version 1.11.2 - Michael Bushnell, 1993-03.
273 * Changes in backup scripts: cleaned up considerably; notices error
274 conditions better over rsh; DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT is now an option in
275 backup-specs; new file dump-remind is an example of a
278 * Superfluous "Reading dirname" was a bug; fixed.
280 * Incompatibility problems with a bug on Solaris are fixed.
282 * New option --gzip (aliases are --ungzip and -z); calls gzip instead
283 of compress. Also, --use-compress-program lets you specify any
284 compress program. --compress-block is renamed --block-compress and
285 now requires one of the three compression options to be specified.
287 * Several error messages are cleaned up.
289 * Directory owners are now set properly when running as root.
291 * Provide DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT in backup-specs as a possible option
294 * Behave better with broken rmt servers.
296 * Dump scripts no longer use --atime-preserve; this causes a nasty probem.
298 * Several Makefile cleanups.
300 Version 1.11.1 - Michael Bushnell, 1992-09.
304 Version 1.11 - Michael Bushnell, 1992-09.
305 Version 1.10.16 - 1992-07.
306 Version 1.10.15 - 1992-06.
307 Version 1.10.14 - 1992-05.
308 Version 1.10.13 - 1992-01.
312 * Now uses GNU standard configure, generated by Autoconf.
314 * Long options now use `--'; use of `+' is deprecated and support
315 for it will eventually be removed.
317 * New option --null causes filenames read by -T to be
318 null-terminated, and causes -C to be ignored.
320 * New option --remove-files deletes files (but not directories)
321 after they are added to the archive.
323 * New option --ignore-failed-read prevents read-errors from affecting
326 * New option --checkpoint prints occasional messages as the tape
327 is being read or written.
329 * New option --show-omitted-dirs prints the names of directories
330 omitted from the archive.
332 * Some tape drives which use a non-standard method of indicating
333 end-of-tape now work correctly with multi-tape archives.
335 * --volno-file: Read the volume number used in prompting the user
336 (but not in recording volume ID's on the archive) from a file.
338 * When using --multi-volume, you can now give multiple -f arguments;
339 the various tape drives will get used in sequence and then wrap
340 around to the beginning.
342 * Remote archive names no longer have to be in /dev: any file with a
343 `:' is interpreted as remote. If new option --force-local is given,
344 then even archive files with a `:' are considered local.
346 * New option --atime-preserve restores (if possible) atimes to
347 their original values after dumping the file.
349 * No longer does tar confusingly dump "." when you don't tell it
352 * When extracting directories, tar now correctly restores their
353 modification and access times.
355 * Longnames support is redone differently--long name info directly
356 precedes the long-named file or link in the archive, so you no
357 longer have to wait for the extract to hit the end of the tape for
360 Version 1.10 - Michael Bushnell, 1991-07.
362 * Filename to -G is optional. -C works right. Names +newer and
363 +newer-mtime work right.
365 * -g is now +incremental, -G is now +listed-incremental.
367 * Sparse files now work correctly.
369 * +volume is now called +label.
371 * +exclude now takes a filename argument, and +exclude-from does
372 what +exclude used to do.
374 * Exit status is now correct.
376 * +totals keeps track of total I/O and prints it when tar exits.
378 * When using +label with +extract, the label is now a regexp.
380 * New option +tape-length (-L) does multi-volume handling like BSD
381 dump: you tell tar how big the tape is and it will prompt at that
382 point instead of waiting for a write error.
384 * New backup scripts level-0 and level-1 which might be useful
385 to people. They use a file "backup-specs" for information, and
386 shouldn't need local modification. These are what we use to do
387 all our backups at the FSF.
389 Version 1.09 - Jay Fenlason, 1990-10.
390 Version 1.08 - Jay Fenlason, 1990-01.
391 Versions 1.07 back to 1.00 by Jay Fenlason.
393 * See ChangeLog for more details.