Dogcows Code - chaz/tar/blob - README

   1 README for GNU tar
   2 See the end of file for copying conditions.
   3
   4 * Introduction
   5
   6 Please glance through *all* sections of this
   7 `README' file before starting configuration.  Also make sure you read files
   8 `ABOUT-NLS' and `INSTALL' if you are not familiar with them already.
   9
  10 If you got the `tar' distribution in `shar' format, time stamps ought to be
  11 properly restored; do not ignore such complaints at `unshar' time.
  12
  13 GNU `tar' saves many files together into a single tape or disk
  14 archive, and can restore individual files from the archive.  It includes
  15 multivolume support, the ability to archive sparse files, automatic archive
  16 compression/decompression, remote archives and special features that allow
  17 `tar' to be used for incremental and full backups.  This distribution
  18 also includes `rmt', the remote tape server.  The `mt' tape drive control
  19 program is in the GNU `cpio' distribution.
  20
  21 GNU `tar' is derived from John Gilmore's public domain `tar'.
  22
  23 See file `ABOUT-NLS' for how to customize this program to your language.
  24 See file `COPYING' for copying conditions.
  25 See file `INSTALL' for compilation and installation instructions.
  26 See file `PORTS' for various ports of GNU tar to non-Unix systems.
  27 See file `NEWS' for a list of major changes in the current release.
  28 See file `THANKS' for a list of contributors.
  29
  30 Besides those configure options documented in files `INSTALL' and
  31 `ABOUT-NLS', an extra option may be accepted after `./configure':
  32
  33 * Install
  34
  35 ** Selecting the default archive format.
  36
  37 The default archive format is GNU, this can be overridden by
  38 presetting DEFAULT_ARCHIVE_FORMAT while configuring. The allowed
  39 values are GNU, V7, OLDGNU, USTAR and POSIX.
  40
  41 ** Selecting the default archive device
  42
  43 The default archive device is now `stdin' on read and `stdout' on write.
  44 The installer can still override this by presetting `DEFAULT_ARCHIVE'
  45 in the environment before configuring (the behavior of `-[0-7]' or
  46 `-[0-7]lmh' options in `tar' are then derived automatically).  Similarly,
  47 `DEFAULT_BLOCKING' can be preset to something else than 20.
  48
  49 ** `--disable-largefile' omits support for large files, even if the
  50 operating system supports large files.  Typically, large files are
  51 those larger on 2 GB on a 32-bit host.
  52
  53 * Installation hints
  54
  55 Here are a few hints which might help installing `tar' on some systems.
  56
  57 ** gzip and bzip2.
  58
  59 GNU tar uses the gzip and bzip2 programs to read and write compressed
  60 archives.  If you don't have these programs already, you need to
  61 install them.  Their sources can be found at:
  62
  63 ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gzip/
  64 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/bzip2/
  65
  66 If you see the following symptoms:
  67
  68    $ tar -xzf file.tar.gz
  69    gzip: stdin: decompression OK, trailing garbage ignored
  70    tar: Child returned status 2
  71
  72 then you have encountered a gzip incompatibility that should be fixed
  73 in gzip test version 1.3, which as of this writing is available at
  74 <ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/gzip/>.  You can work around the
  75 incompatibility by using a shell command like
  76  `gzip -d <file.tar.gz | tar -xzf -'.
  77
  78 ** Solaris issues.
  79
  80 GNU tar exercises many features that can cause problems with older GCC
  81 versions.  In particular, GCC 2.8.1 (sparc, -O1 or -O2) is known to
  82 miscompile GNU tar.  No compiler-related problems have been reported
  83 when using GCC 2.95.2 or later.
  84
  85 Recent versions of Solaris tar sport a new -E option to generate
  86 extended headers in an undocumented format.  GNU tar does not
  87 understand these headers.
  88
  89 ** Static linking.
  90
  91 Some platform will, by default, prepare a smaller `tar' executable
  92 which depends on shared libraries.  Since GNU `tar' may be used for
  93 system-level backups and disaster recovery, installers might prefer to
  94 force static linking, making a bigger `tar' executable maybe, but able to
  95 work standalone, in situations where shared libraries are not available.
  96 The way to achieve static linking varies between systems.  Set LDFLAGS
  97 to a value from the table below, before configuration (see `INSTALL').
  98
  99         Platform        Compiler        LDFLAGS
 100
 101         (any)           Gnu C           -static
 102         AIX             (vendor)        -bnso -bI:/lib/syscalls.exp
 103         HPUX            (vendor)        -Wl,-a,archive
 104         IRIX            (vendor)        -non_shared
 105         OSF             (vendor)        -non_shared
 106         SCO 3.2v5       (vendor)        -dn
 107         Solaris         (vendor)        -Bstatic
 108         SunOS           (vendor)        -Bstatic
 109
 110 ** Failed tests `ignfail.sh' or `incremen.sh'.
 111
 112 In an NFS environment, lack of synchronization between machine clocks
 113 might create difficulties to any tool comparing dates and file time stamps,
 114 like `tar' in incremental dumps.  This has been a recurrent problem with
 115 GNU Make for the last few years.  We would like a general solution.
 116
 117 ** BSD compatibility matters.
 118
 119 Set LIBS to `-lbsd' before configuration (see `INSTALL') if the linker
 120 complains about `bsd_ioctl' (Slackware).  Also set CPPFLAGS to
 121 `-I/usr/include/bsd' if <sgtty.h> is not found (Slackware).
 122
 123 ** OPENStep 4.2 swap files
 124
 125 Tar cannot read the file /private/vm/swapfile.front (even as root).
 126 This file is not a real file, but some kind of uncompressed view of
 127 the real compressed swap file; there is no reason to back it up, so
 128 the simplest workaround is to avoid tarring this file.
 129
 130 * Special topics
 131
 132 Here are a few special matters about GNU `tar', not related to build
 133 matters.  See previous section for such.
 134
 135 ** File attributes.
 136
 137 About *security*, it is probable that future releases of `tar' will have
 138 some behavior changed.  There are many pending suggestions to choose from.
 139 Today, extracting an archive not being `root', `tar' will restore suid/sgid
 140 bits on files but owned by the extracting user.  `root' automatically gets
 141 a lot of special privileges, `-p' might later become required to get them.
 142
 143 GNU `tar' does not properly restore symlink attributes.  Various systems
 144 implement flavors of symbolic links showing different behavior and
 145 properties.  We did not successfully sorted all these out yet.  Currently,
 146 the `lchown' call will be used if available, but that's all.
 147
 148 ** POSIX compliance.
 149
 150 GNU `tar' is able to create archive in the following formats:
 151
 152   *** The format of UNIX version 7
 153   *** POSIX.1-1988 format, also known as "ustar format"
 154   *** POSIX.1-2001 format, also known as "pax format"
 155   *** Old GNU format (described below)
 156
 157 In addition to those, GNU `tar' is also able to read archives
 158 produced by `star' archiver.
 159
 160 A so called `Old GNU' format is based on an early draft of the
 161 POSIX 1003.1 `ustar' standard which is different from the final
 162 standard. It defines its extensions (such as incremental backups
 163 and handling of the long file names) in a way incompatible with
 164 any existing tar archive format, therefore the use of old GNU
 165 format is strongly discouraged.
 166
 167 Please read the file NEWS for more information about POSIX compliance
 168 and new `tar' features.
 169
 170 * What's next?
 171
 172 In the future we will try to release tar-1.14 as soon as possible and
 173 start merging with paxutils afterwards.  We'll also try to rewrite
 174 some parts of the documentation after paxutils has been merged.
 175
 176 * Bug reporting.
 177
 178 Send bug reports to <bug-tar@gnu.org>.  A bug report should contain
 179 an adequate description of the problem, your input, what you expected,
 180 what you got, and why this is wrong.  Diffs are welcome, but they only
 181 describe a solution, from which the problem might be uneasy to infer.
 182 If needed, submit actual data files with your report.  Small data files
 183 are preferred.  Big files may sometimes be necessary, but do not send them
 184 to the report address; rather take special arrangement with the maintainer.
 185
 186 Your feedback will help us to make a better and more portable package.
 187 Consider documentation errors as bugs, and report them as such.  If you
 188 develop anything pertaining to `tar' or have suggestions, let us know
 189 and share your findings by writing to <bug-tar@gnu.org>.
 190
 191 \f
 192 * Copying
 193
 194         Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000,
 195         2001, 2003, 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 196
 197         This file is part of GNU tar.
 198
 199         GNU tar is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 200         it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 201         the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
 202         any later version.
 203
 204         GNU tar is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 205         but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 206         MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 207         GNU General Public License for more details.
 208
 209         You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 210         along with tar; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to
 211         the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330,
 212         Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
 213
 214 \f
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