1 GNU tar NEWS - User visible changes.
2 Copyright © 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 version 1.12.lfs.1 - Paul Eggert, 1998-02.
6 This version is an unofficial port of GNU `tar' 1.12 to Large File
7 Summit (LFS) environments like Solaris 2.6 that rely on integer system
8 types longer than `long'. Please send bug reports specific to this
9 unofficial version of GNU `tar' to <eggert@twinsun.com>.
11 Version 1.12 - François Pinard, 1997-04.
14 * Use shell globbing patterns for --label, instead of regular expressions.
15 * Do not quote anymore internally over the quoting done by the shell.
18 * Offer internationalisation capabilities of most recent GNU gettext.
19 * Messages available in many more languages, thanks to all translators!
20 * Usage of ISO 8601 dates in listings, instead of local American dates.
21 * More normalisation and cleanup in error messages.
24 * For helping using tar with find, offer a --no-recursion option.
25 * Implement --numeric-owner for ignoring symbolic names at create time.
26 * New --owner, --group --mode options, still preliminary.
27 * Recognise creating an archive on /dev/null, so Amanda works faster.
28 * Object to the creation of an empty archive (like in `tar cf FILE').
29 * Barely start implementing --posix and POSIXLY_CORRECT.
32 * Make a better job at restoring file and directory attributes.
33 * Automatically attempt deleting existing files when in the way.
34 * Option --unlink-first (-U) removes most files prior to extraction.
35 * Option --recursive-unlink removes non-empty directories when in the way.
36 * Option --numeric-owner ignores owner/group names, it uses UID/GID instead.
37 * Use global umask when creating missing intermediate directories.
38 * When symlinks are not available, extract symbolic links as hard links.
39 * Diagnose extraction of contiguous files as regular files.
40 * New --backup, --suffix and --version-control options.
43 * Better support of huge archives with --tape-length and --totals.
44 * Rename option --read-full-blocks (-B) to --read-full-records (-B).
45 * Rename option --block-size (-b) to --blocking-factor (-b).
46 * Rename option --record-number (-R) to --block-number (-R).
47 * With --block-number (-R), report null blocks and end of file.
48 * Implement --record-size for introducing a size in bytes.
49 * Delete --block-compress option and rather decide it automatically.
50 * Rename option --modification-time to --touch.
52 Many bugs are squashed, while others still run free.
54 Version 1.11.8 - François Pinard, 1995-06.
56 * Messages available in French, German, Portuguese and Swedish.
57 * The distribution provides a rudimentary Texinfo manual.
58 * The device defaults to stdin/stdout, unless overridden by the installer.
59 * Option --sparse (-S) should work on more systems.
60 * Option --rsh-command may select an alternative remote shell program.
62 Most changes are internal, and should yield better portability.
64 Version 1.11.2 - Michael Bushnell, 1993-03.
66 * Changes in backup scripts: cleaned up considerably; notices error
67 conditions better over rsh; DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT is now an option in
68 backup-specs; new file dump-remind is an example of a
71 * Superfluous "Reading dirname" was a bug; fixed.
73 * Incompatibility problems with a bug on Solaris are fixed.
75 * New option --gzip (aliases are --ungzip and -z); calls gzip instead
76 of compress. Also, --use-compress-program lets you specify any
77 compress program. --compress-block is renamed --block-compress and
78 now requires one of the three compression options to be specified.
80 * Several error messages are cleaned up.
82 * Directory owners are now set properly when running as root.
84 * Provide DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT in backup-specs as a possible option
87 * Behave better with broken rmt servers.
89 * Dump scripts no longer use --atime-preserve; this causes a nasty probem.
91 * Several Makefile cleanups.
93 Version 1.11.1 - Michael Bushnell, 1992-09.
97 Version 1.11 - Michael Bushnell, 1992-09.
98 Version 1.10.16 - 1992-07.
99 Version 1.10.15 - 1992-06.
100 Version 1.10.14 - 1992-05.
101 Version 1.10.13 - 1992-01.
105 * Now uses GNU standard configure, generated by Autoconf.
107 * Long options now use `--'; use of `+' is deprecated and support
108 for it will eventually be removed.
110 * New option --null causes filenames read by -T to be
111 null-terminated, and causes -C to be ignored.
113 * New option --remove-files deletes files (but not directories)
114 after they are added to the archive.
116 * New option --ignore-failed-read prevents read-errors from affecting
119 * New option --checkpoint prints occasional messages as the tape
120 is being read or written.
122 * New option --show-omitted-dirs prints the names of directories
123 omitted from the archive.
125 * Some tape drives which use a non-standard method of indicating
126 end-of-tape now work correctly with multi-tape archives.
128 * --volno-file: Read the volume number used in prompting the user
129 (but not in recording volume ID's on the archive) from a file.
131 * When using --multi-volume, you can now give multiple -f arguments;
132 the various tape drives will get used in sequence and then wrap
133 around to the beginning.
135 * Remote archive names no longer have to be in /dev: any file with a
136 `:' is interpreted as remote. If new option --force-local is given,
137 then even archive files with a `:' are considered local.
139 * New option --atime-preserve restores (if possible) atimes to
140 their original values after dumping the file.
142 * No longer does tar confusingly dump "." when you don't tell it
145 * When extracting directories, tar now correctly restores their
146 modification and access times.
148 * Longnames support is redone differently--long name info directly
149 precedes the long-named file or link in the archive, so you no
150 longer have to wait for the extract to hit the end of the tape for
153 Version 1.10 - Michael Bushnell, 1991-07.
155 * Filename to -G is optional. -C works right. Names +newer and
156 +newer-mtime work right.
158 * -g is now +incremental, -G is now +listed-incremental.
160 * Sparse files now work correctly.
162 * +volume is now called +label.
164 * +exclude now takes a filename argument, and +exclude-from does
165 what +exclude used to do.
167 * Exit status is now correct.
169 * +totals keeps track of total I/O and prints it when tar exits.
171 * When using +label with +extract, the label is now a regexp.
173 * New option +tape-length (-L) does multi-volume handling like BSD
174 dump: you tell tar how big the tape is and it will prompt at that
175 point instead of waiting for a write error.
177 * New backup scripts level-0 and level-1 which might be useful
178 to people. They use a file "backup-specs" for information, and
179 shouldn't need local modification. These are what we use to do
180 all our backups at the FSF.
182 Version 1.09 - Jay Fenlason, 1990-10.
183 Version 1.08 - Jay Fenlason, 1990-01.
184 Versions 1.07 back to 1.00 by Jay Fenlason.
186 * See ChangeLog for more details.