-GNU tar NEWS - User visible changes. 2008-04-14
+GNU tar NEWS - User visible changes. 2010-10-24
Please send GNU tar bug reports to <bug-tar@gnu.org>
\f
+version 1.24 - Sergey Poznyakoff, 2010-10-24
+
+* The --full-time option.
+
+New command line option `--full-time' instructs tar to output file
+time stamps to the full resolution.
+
+* Bugfixes.
+
+** More reliable directory traversal when creating archives
+
+Tar now checks for inconsistencies caused when a file system is
+modified while tar is creating an archive. In the new approach, tar
+maintains a cache of file descriptors to directories, so it uses more
+file descriptors than before, but it adjusts to system limits on
+the number of file descriptors. Tar also takes more care when
+a file system is modified while tar is extracting from an archive.
+
+The new checks are implemented via the openat and related calls
+standardized by POSIX.1-2008. On an older system where these calls do
+not exist or do not return useful results, tar emulates the calls at
+some cost in efficiency and reliability.
+
+** Symbolic link attributes
+
+When extracting symbolic links, tar now restores attributes such as
+last-modified time and link permissions, if the operating system
+supports this. For example, recent versions of the Linux kernel
+support setting times on symlinks, and some BSD kernels also support
+symlink permissions.
+
+** --dereference consistency
+
+The --dereference (-h) option now applies to files that are copied
+into or out of archives, independently of other options. For example,
+if F is a symbolic link and archive.tar contains a regular-file member
+also named F, "tar --overwrite -x -f archive.tar F" now overwrites F
+itself, rather than the file that F points to. (To overwrite the file
+that F points to, add the --dereference (-h) option.) Formerly,
+--dereference was intended to apply only when using the -c option, but
+the implementation was not consistent.
+
+Also, the --dereference option no longer affects accesses to other
+files, such as archives and time stamp files. Symbolic links to these
+files are always followed. Previously, the links were usually but not
+always followed.
+
+** Spurious error diagnostics on broken pipe.
+
+When receiving SIGPIPE, tar would exit with error status and
+"write error" diagnostics. In particular, this occurred if
+invoked as in the example below:
+
+ tar tf archive.tar | head -n 1
+
+** --remove-files
+
+`Tar --remove-files' failed to remove a directory which contained
+symlinks to another files within that directory.
+
+** --test-label behavior
+
+In case of a mismatch, `tar --test-label LABEL' exits with code 1,
+not 2 as it did in previous versions.
+
+The `--verbose' option used with `--test-label' provides additional
+diagnostics.
+
+Several volume labels may be specified in a command line, e.g.:
+
+ tar --test-label -f archive 'My volume' 'New volume' 'Test volume'
+
+In this case, tar exits with code 0 if any one of the arguments
+matches the actual volume label.
+
+** --label used with --update
+
+The `--label' option can be used with `--update' to prevent accidental
+update of an archive:
+
+ tar -rf archive --label 'My volume' .
+
+This did not work in previous versions, in spite of what the docs said.
+
+** --record-size and --tape-length (-L) options
+
+Usual size suffixes are allowed for these options. For example,
+-L10k stands for a 10 kilobyte tape length.
+
+** Fix dead loop on extracting existing symlinks with the -k option.
+
+\f
+version 1.23 - Sergey Poznyakoff, 2010-03-10
+
+* Record size autodetection
+
+When listing or extracting archives, the actual record size is
+reported only if the archive is read from a device (as opposed
+to regular files and pipes).
+
+* Seekable archives
+
+When a read-only operation (e.g. --list or --extract) is requested
+on a regular file, tar attemtps to speed up accesses by using lseek.
+
+* New command line option `--warning'
+
+The `--warning' command line option allows to suppress or enable
+particular warning messages during `tar' run. It takes a single
+argument (a `keyword'), identifying the class of warning messages
+to affect. If the argument is prefixed with `no-', such warning
+messages are suppressed. For example,
+
+ tar --warning=no-alone-zero-block -x -f archive
+
+suppresses the output of `A lone zero block' diagnostics, which is
+normally issued if `archive' ends with a single block of zeros.
+
+See Tar Manual, section 3.9 "Controlling Warning Messages", for a
+detailed discussion.
+
+* New command line option `--level'
+
+The `--level=N' option sets the incremental dump level N. It
+is valid when used in conjunction with the -c and --listed-incremental
+options. So far the only meaningful value for N is 0. The
+`--level=0' option forces creating the level 0 dump, by truncating
+the snapshot file if it exists.
+
+* Files removed during incremental dumps
+
+If a file or directory is removed while incremental dump is
+in progress, tar exact actions depend on whether this file
+was explicitly listed in the command line, or was found
+during file system scan.
+
+If the file was explicitly listed in the command line, tar
+issues error message and exits with the code 2, meaning
+fatal error.
+
+Otherwise, if the file was found during the file system scan,
+tar issues a warning, saying "File removed before we read it",
+and sets exit code to 1, which means "some files differ".
+If the --warning=no-file-removed option is given, no warning
+is issued and exit code remains 0.
+
+* Modification times of PAX extended headers.
+
+Modification times in ustar header blocks of extended headers
+are set to mtimes of the corresponding archive members. This
+can be overridden by the
+
+ --pax-opion='exthdr.mtime=STRING'
+
+command line option. The STRING is either number of seconds since
+the Epoch or a `Time reference' (see below).
+
+Modification times in ustar header blocks of global extended
+headers are set to the time when tar was invoked.
+
+This can be overridden by the
+
+ --pax-opion='globexthdr.mtime=STRING'
+
+command line option. The STRING is either number of seconds since
+the Epoch or a `Time reference' (see below).
+
+* Time references in --pax-option argument.
+
+Any value from the --pax-option argument that is enclosed in a pair
+of curly braces represents a time reference. The string between the
+braces is understood either as a textual time representation, as described in
+chapter 7, "Date input formats", of the Tar manual, or as a name of
+an existing file, starting with `/' or `.'. In the latter
+case, it is replaced with the modification time of that file.
+
+* Environment of --to-command script.
+
+The environment passed to the --to-command script is extended with
+the following variables:
+
+ TAR_VERSION GNU tar version number
+ TAR_ARCHIVE The name of the archive
+ TAR_VOLUME Ordinal number of the volume
+ TAR_FORMAT Format of the archive
+ TAR_BLOCKING_FACTOR Current blocking factor
+
+* Bugfixes
+** Fix handling of hard link targets by -c --transform.
+** Fix hard links recognition with -c --remove-files.
+** Fix restoring files from backup (debian bug #508199).
+** Correctly restore modes and permissions on existing directories.
+** The --remove-files option removes files only if they were
+succesfully stored in the archive.
+** Fix storing and listing of the volume labels in POSIX format.
+** Improve algorithm for splitting long file names (ustar
+format).
+** Fix possible memory overflow in the rmt client code (CVE-2010-0624).
+
+\f
+version 1.22 - Sergey Poznyakoff, 2009-03-05
+
+* Support for xz compression
+
+Tar uses xz for compression if one of the following conditions is met:
+
+ 1. The option --xz or -J (see below) is used.
+ 2. The xz binary is set as compressor using --use-compress-program option.
+ 3. The file name of the archive being created ends in `.xz' and
+ auto-compress option (-a) is used.
+
+Xz is used for decompression if one of the following conditions is met:
+
+ 1. The option --xz or -J is used.
+ 2. The xz binary is set as compressor using --use-compress-program option.
+ 3. The file is recognized as xz compressed stream data.
+
+* Short option -J reassigned as a short equivalent of --xz
+
+* New option -I
+
+The -I option is assigned as a short equivalent for
+--use-compress-program.
+
+* The --no-recursive option works in incremental mode.
+
+\f
+version 1.21 - Sergey Poznyakoff, 2008-12-27
+
+* New short option -J
+
+A shortcut for --lzma.
+
+* New option --lzop
+
+* New option --no-auto-compress
+
+Cancels the effect of previous --auto-compress (-a) option.
+
+* New option --no-null
+
+Cancels the effect of previous --null option.
+
+* Compressed format recognition
+
+If tar is unable to determine archive compression format, it falls
+back to using archive suffix to determine it.
+
+* VCS support.
+
+Using --exclude-vcs handles also files used internally by Bazaar,
+Mercurial and Darcs.
+
+* Transformation scope flags
+
+Name transformation expressions understand additional flags that
+control type of archive members affected by them. The flags are:
+
+ - r
+ Apply transformation to regular archive members.
+
+ - s
+ Apply transformation to symbolic link targets.
+
+ - h
+ Apply transformation to hard link targets.
+
+Corresponding upper-case letters negate the meaning, so that
+`H' means ``do not apply transformation to hard link targets.''
+
+The scope flags are listed in the third part of an `s' expression,
+e.g.:
+
+ tar --transform 's|^|/usr/local/|S'
+
+Default is `rsh', which means that transformations are applied to
+both regular archive members and to the targets of symbolic and hard
+links. If several transform expressions are used, the default flags
+can be changed using `flags=' statement before the expressions, e.g.:
+
+ tar --transform 'flags=S;s|^|/usr/local/|S'
+
+* Bugfixes
+
+** The --null option disabled handling of tar options in list files. This
+is fixed.
+** Fixed record size autodetection. If the detected record size differs from
+the expected value (either default one, or the one set from the
+command line), tar always prints a warning if verbosity level is set
+to 1 or greater, i.e. if either -t or -v option is given.
+
+\f
+
version 1.20 - Sergey Poznyakoff, 2008-04-14
* New option --auto-compress (-a)
during extraction.
For a detailed description, see chapter 6.7 "Modifying File and Member
-Names".
+Names".
* Info (end-of-volume) scripts
The following options now work with incremental archives as well:
- --exclude-caches
- --exclude-caches-all
+ --exclude-caches
+ --exclude-caches-all
--exclude-tag
--exclude-tag-all
--exclude-tag-under
records, even if -P was not used. This is fixed: rename records
contain file names processed in accordance with the command line
settings.
-
+
* Fix --version output.
* Recognition of broken archives.
When supplied an archive smaller than 512 bytes in reading mode (-x,
-t), the previous version of tar silently ignored it, exiting with
-code 0. It is fixed. Tar now issues the following diagnostic message:
+code 0. It is fixed. Tar now issues the following diagnostic message:
'This does not look like a tar archive', and exits with code 2.
* Fix double-dot recognition in archive member names in case of duplicate '/.'.
\f
Copyright (C) 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003,
-2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This file is part of GNU tar.
projects / tar / blobdiff