+For comprehensive modifications to GNU tar, you might need tools beyond
+those used in simple installations. Fully install GNU m4 1.4 first,
+and only then, Autoconf 2.13 or later. Install Perl, then Automake
+1.4 or later. You might need Bison 1.28 or later, and GNU tar itself.
+All are available on GNU archive sites, like in
+ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/.
+
+Send bug reports to `bug-tar@gnu.org'. (Beware, old-timers: it is
+`@gnu', not `@prep'; and not `bug-gnu-utils' anymore.) A bug report is
+an adequate description of the problem: your input, what you expected,
+what you got, and why this is wrong. Diffs are welcome, but they only
+describe a solution, from which the problem might be uneasy to infer.
+If needed, submit actual data files with your report. Small data files
+are preferred. Big files may sometimes be necessary, but do not send them
+to the report address; rather take special arrangement with the maintainer.
+
+Your feedback will help us to make a better and more portable package.
+Consider documentation errors as bugs, and report them as such. If you
+develop anything pertaining to `tar' or have suggestions, let us know
+and share your findings by writing at `tar-forum@iro.umontreal.ca'.
+
+.--------------------.
+| Installation hints |
+`--------------------'
+
+Here are a few hints which might help installing `tar' on some systems.
+
+* gzip and bzip2.
+
+GNU tar uses the gzip and bzip2 programs to read and write compressed
+archives. If you don't have these programs already, you need to
+install them. Their sources can be found at:
+
+ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gzip/
+http://sourceware.cygnus.com/bzip2/
+
+If you see the following symptoms:
+
+ $ tar -xzf file.tar.gz
+ gzip: stdin: decompression OK, trailing garbage ignored
+ tar: Child returned status 2
+
+then you have encountered a gzip incompatibility that should be fixed
+in gzip 1.3, which is not yet available as of this writing. You can
+work around the incompatibility by using a shell command like
+`gzip -d <file.tar.gz | tar -xzf -'.
+
+* Solaris issues.
+
+If you are compiling with GCC, you may need to upgrade GCC to 2.95.2
+or later before compiling GNU tar, as GNU tar exercises many features
+that can cause problems with older GCC versions, mostly having to do
+with mutations to Solaris system include files.
+
+Recent versions of Solaris tar sport a new -E option to generate
+extended headers in an undocumented format. GNU tar does not
+understand these headers.
+
+* Static linking.
+
+Some platform will, by default, prepare a smaller `tar' executable
+which depends on shared libraries. Since GNU `tar' may be used for
+system-level backups and disaster recovery, installers might prefer to
+force static linking, making a bigger `tar' executable maybe, but able to
+work standalone, in situations where shared libraries are not available.
+The way to achieve static linking varies between systems. Set LDFLAGS
+to a value from the table below, before configuration (see `INSTALL').
+
+ Platform Compiler LDFLAGS
+
+ (any) Gnu C -static
+ AIX (vendor) "-bnso -bI:/lib/syscalls.exp"
+ HPUX (vendor) -Wl,-a,archive
+ IRIX (vendor) -non_shared
+ OSF (vendor) -non_shared
+ SCO 3.2v5 (vendor) -dn
+ Solaris (vendor) -Bstatic
+ SunOS (vendor) -Bstatic
+
+* Failed `incremen.sh'.
+
+In an NFS environment, lack of synchronization between machine clocks
+might create difficulties to any tool comparing dates and file time stamps,
+like `tar' in incremental dumps. This has been a recurrent problem in
+GNU Makefiles for the last few years. We would like a general solution.
+
+* BSD compatibility matters.
+
+Set LIBS to `-lbsd' before configuration (see `INSTALL') if the linker
+complains about `bsd_ioctl' (Slackware). Also set CPPFLAGS to
+`-I/usr/include/bsd' if <sgtty.h> is not found (Slackware).
+
+* OPENStep 4.2 swap files
+
+Tar cannot read the file /private/vm/swapfile.front (even as root).
+This file is not a real file, but some kind of uncompressed view of
+the real compressed swap file; there is no reason to back it up, so
+the simplest workaround is to avoid tarring this file.
+
+.------------------.
+| Special topics. |
+`------------------'
+
+Here are a few special matters about GNU `tar', not related to build
+matters. See previous section for such.
+
+* File attributes.
+
+About *security*, it is probable that future releases of `tar' will have
+some behavior changed. There are many pending suggestions to choose from.
+Today, extracting an archive not being `root', `tar' will restore suid/sgid
+bits on files but owned by the extracting user. `root' automatically gets
+a lot of special privileges, `-p' might later become required to get them.
+
+GNU `tar' does not properly restore symlink attributes. Various systems
+implement flavors of symbolic links showing different behavior and
+properties. We did not successfully sorted all these out yet. Currently,
+the `lchown' call will be used if available, but that's all.
+
+* POSIX compliance.
+
+GNU `tar' implements an early draft of the POSIX 1003.1 `ustar' standard
+which is different from the final standard. This will be progressively
+corrected over the incoming few years. Don't be mislead by the mere
+existence of the --posix option. Later releases will become able to
+read truly POSIX archives, and also to produce them under option. (Also,
+if you look at the internals, don't take the GNU extensions you see for
+granted, as they are planned to change.) GNU tar 2.0 will produce POSIX
+archives by default, but there is a long way before we get there.
+
+* What's next?
+
+In the future we will try to release tar-1.14 as soon as possible and
+start merging with paxutils afterwards. We'll also try to rewrite
+some parts of the documentation after paxutils has been merged.