From: Paul Eggert Date: Thu, 1 Dec 2005 00:18:05 +0000 (+0000) Subject: * doc/tar.texi (Option Summary): Rewrite the X-Git-Url: https://git.brokenzipper.com/gitweb?a=commitdiff_plain;h=2edff367d96d997defa50ac9cf711b5e2334e82a;p=chaz%2Ftar * doc/tar.texi (Option Summary): Rewrite the --atime-preserve=system description in response to Ian Turner's proposed patch. * doc/tar.texi (Extracting Specific Files): Remove obsolescent FIXME. --- diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog index d2cdc6c..d1edfac 100644 --- a/ChangeLog +++ b/ChangeLog @@ -1,3 +1,14 @@ +2005-11-30 Paul Eggert + + * doc/tar.texi (Option Summary): Rewrite the + --atime-preserve=system description in response to Ian Turner's + proposed patch. + +2005-11-30 Ian Turner + + * doc/tar.texi (Extracting Specific Files): Remove obsolescent + FIXME. + 2005-11-29 Paul Eggert * NEWS: New option --atime-preserve=system, which uses O_NOATIME. diff --git a/doc/tar.texi b/doc/tar.texi index 5de2ba3..9d92a24 100644 --- a/doc/tar.texi +++ b/doc/tar.texi @@ -1470,11 +1470,8 @@ To extract specific archive members, give their exact member names as arguments, as printed by @value{op-list}. If you had mistakenly deleted one of the files you had placed in the archive @file{collection.tar} earlier (say, @file{blues}), you can extract it from the archive without -changing the archive's structure. It will be identical to the original -file @file{blues} that you deleted. @FIXME{At the time of this -writing, atime and ctime are not restored. Since this is a tutorial -for a beginning user, it should hardly be mentioned here. Maybe in -a footnote? --gray}. +changing the archive's structure. Its contents will be identical to the +original file @file{blues} that you deleted. First, make sure you are in the @file{practice} directory, and list the files in the directory. Now, delete the file, @samp{blues}, and list @@ -2221,15 +2218,6 @@ Attempt to preserve the access time of files when reading them. This option currently is effective only on files that you own, unless you have superuser privileges. -Though this option should work on recent Linux kernel versions, it is -not reliable on other platforms. To preserve the access time reliably -on those platforms, you can mount the file system read-only, or access -the file system via a read-only loopback mount, or use the -@samp{noatime} mount option available on some systems. However, -mounting typically requires superuser privileges and can be a pain to -manage, so the @option{--atime-preserve} option can be useful despite -its glitches on other platforms. - @value{op-atime-preserve-replace} remembers the access time of a file before reading it, and then restores the access time afterwards. This may cause problems if other programs are reading the file at the same @@ -2242,24 +2230,32 @@ conditions.) Worse, on most platforms restoring the access time also updates the status change time, which means that this option is incompatible with incremental backups. -@value{op-atime-preserve-system} avoids changing time stamps on files -other than directories, without interfering with time stamp updates +@value{op-atime-preserve-system} avoids changing time stamps on files, +without interfering with time stamp updates caused by other programs, so it works better with incremental backups. However, it requires a special @code{O_NOATIME} option from the -underlying operating and file system implementation, and it requires +underlying operating and file system implementation, and it also requires that searching directories does not update their access times. As of -this writing (November 2005) this works only in a few new Linux -kernels. Worse, there is currently no reliable way to know whether -the features actually work. Sometimes @command{tar} knows for sure -that the features are not working, so it will complain and exit right -away if you try to use @value{op-atime-preserve-system}; but other -times @command{tar} might think that the option is supported when it -is not actually working. +this writing (November 2005) this works only with Linux, and only with +Linux kernels 2.6.8 and later. Worse, there is currently no reliable +way to know whether this feature actually works. Sometimes +@command{tar} knows that it does not work, and if you use +@value{op-atime-preserve-system} then @command{tar} complains and +exits right away. But other times @command{tar} might think that the +option works when it actually does not. Currently @option{--atime-preserve} with no operand defaults to @value{op-atime-preserve-replace}, but this may change in the future as support for @value{op-atime-preserve-system} improves. +If your operating system does not support +@value{op-atime-preserve-system}, you might be able to preserve access +times reliably by by using the @command{mount} command. For example, +you can mount the file system read-only, or access the file system via +a read-only loopback mount, or use the @samp{noatime} mount option +available on some systems. However, mounting typically requires +superuser privileges and can be a pain to manage. + @item --backup=@var{backup-type} Rather than deleting files from the file system, @command{tar} will