-Current Version: 1.11.1
+GNU tar NEWS - User visible changes.
+Copyright 1994, 1995-1998, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
-User-visible changes since 1.11:
+version 1.13.11 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-23.
-o Many bug fixes
+* The short name of the --bzip option has been changed to -I,
+ for compatibility with paxutils.
-User-visible changes since 1.10:
+* -T /dev/null now matches nothing; previously, it matched anything
+ if no explicit operands were given.
-o Many bug fixes
+* The `--' option now works the same as with other GNU utilities;
+ it causes later operands to be interpreted as file names, not options,
+ even if they begin with `-'.
-o Now uses GNU standard configure, generated by Autoconf.
+* For the --newer and --after-date options, the table of time zone
+ abbreviations like `EST' has been updated to match current practice.
+ Also, local time abbreviations are now recognized, even if they are
+ not in tar's hardwired table. Remember, thougy, that you should use
+ numeric UTC offsets like `-0500' instead of abbreviations like
+ `EST', as abbreviations are not standardized and are ambiguous.
-o Long options now use `--'; use of `+' is deprecated and support for it
- will eventually be removed.
-o New option --null causes filenames read by -T to be null-terminated,
- and causes -C to be ignored.
+version 1.13.10 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-20.
-o New option --remove-files deletes files (but not directories) after
- they are added to the archive.
+* `tar' now uses signed base-64 when outputting header values that are
+ out of the range of the standard unsigned base-8 format. This
+ affects archive members with negative time stamps or uids, and
+ archive members 8 GB or larger. The new tar archives cannot be read
+ by traditional tar, or by older versions of GNU tar. Use the
+ --old-archive option to revert to the old behavior, which uses
+ unportable representations for negative values, and which rejects
+ large files.
-o New option --ignore-failed-read prevents read-errors from affecting
- the exit status.
+version 1.13.9 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-18.
-o New option --checkpoint prints occasional messages as the tape is
- being read or written.
+* `tar' now writes two zero blocks at end-of-archive instead of just one.
+ POSIX.1 requires this, and some other `tar' implementations check for it.
-o New option --show-omitted-dirs prints the names of directories
- omitted from the archive.
+* `tar' no longer silently accepts a block containing nonzero checksum bytes
+ as a zero block.
-o Some tape drives which use a non-standard method of indicating
- end-of-tape now work correctly with multi-tape archives.
+* `tar' now reads buggy tar files that have a null byte at the start of a
+ numeric header field.
-o --volno-file: Read the volume number used in prompting the user (but
- not in recording volume ID's on the archive) from a file.
-o When using --multi-volume, you can now give multiple -f arguments;
- the various tape drives will get used in sequence and then wrap
- around to the beginning.
+version 1.13.8 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-16.
-o Remote archive names no longer have to be in /dev: any file with a
- `:' is interpreted as remote. If new option --force-local is given,
- then even archive files with a `:' are considered local.
+* For compatibility with traditional `tar', intermediate directories
+ created automatically by root are no longer given the uid and gid of
+ the original file or directory.
-o New option --atime-preserve restores (if possible) atimes to their
- original values after dumping the file.
-o No longer does tar confusingly dump "." when you don't tell it what
- to dump.
+version 1.13.7 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-14.
-o When extracting directories, tar now correctly restores their
- modification and access times.
+* --listed-incremental and --newer are now incompatible options.
-o Longnames support is redone differently--long name info directly
- precedes the long-named file or link in the archive, so you no
- longer have to wait for the extract to hit the end of the tape for
- long names to work.
+* When creating an archive, leading `./' is no longer stripped,
+ to match traditional tar's behavior (and simplify the documentation).
+* --diff without --absolute-names no longer falls back on absolute names.
+
+
+version 1.13.6 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-11.
+
+* An --exclude pattern containing / now excludes a file only if it matches an
+ initial prefix of the file name; a pattern without / continues to
+ exclude a file if it matches any file name component.
+
+* The protocol for talking to rmt has been extended slightly.
+ Open flags are now communicated in symbolic format as well as numeric.
+ The symbolic format (e.g. "O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC" is for portability
+ when rmt is operating on a different operating system from tar.
+ The numeric format is retained, and rmt uses it if symbolic format is absent,
+ for backward compatibility with older versions of tar and rmt.
+
+* When writing GNU tar format headers, tar now uses signed base-64
+ for values that cannot be represented in unsigned octal.
+ This supports larger files (2**66 - 1 bytes instead of 2**33 - 1 bytes),
+ larger uids, negative time stamps, etc.
+
+* When extracting files with unknown ownership, tar now looks up the
+ uid and gid "nobody" on hosts whose headers do not define UID_NOBODY
+ and GID_NOBODY, and falls back on uid/gid -2 if there is no "nobody".
+
+* tar -t --numeric-owner now prints numeric uids and gids, not symbolic.
+
+* New option -y or --bzip2 for bzip2 compression, by popular request.
+
+
+version 1.13.5 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-20.
+
+* Do the delayed updates of file metadata even after a fatal error.
+
+
+version 1.13.4 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-20.
+
+* Do not chmod unless we are root or the -p option was given;
+ this matches historical practice.
+
+
+version 1.13.3 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-16.
+
+* A path name is excluded if any of its file name components matches an
+ excluded pattern, even if the path name was specified on the command line.
+ Also see 1.13.6 for later changes in this area.
+
+
+version 1.13.2 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-14.
+
+* Bug reporting address changed to <bug-tar@gnu.org>.
+
+
+version 1.13.1 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-12.
+
+* Bug fixes only.
+\f
+version 1.13 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-08.
+
+* Support for large files, e.g. files larger than 2 GB on many 32-bit hosts.
+ Also, support for larger uids, device ids, etc.
+* Many bug fixes and porting fixes.
+* This release is only for fixes. A more ambitious test release,
+ with new features, is available as part of the paxutils. Please see:
+ http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/contrib/paxutils/
+ The fixes in this release are intended to be merged with paxutils
+ at some point, but they haven't been merged yet.
+* An interim GNU tar alpha had new --bzip2 and --ending-file options,
+ but they have been removed to maintain compatibility with paxutils.
+ Please try --use=bzip2 instead of --bzip2.
+\f
+Version 1.12 - François Pinard, 1997-04.
+
+Sensitive matters
+* Use shell globbing patterns for --label, instead of regular expressions.
+* Do not quote anymore internally over the quoting done by the shell.
+
+Output for humans
+* Offer internationalization capabilities of most recent GNU gettext.
+* Messages available in many more languages, thanks to all translators!
+* Usage of ISO 8601 dates in listings, instead of local American dates.
+* More normalization and cleanup in error messages.
+
+Creation
+* For helping using tar with find, offer a --no-recursion option.
+* Implement --numeric-owner for ignoring symbolic names at create time.
+* New --owner, --group --mode options, still preliminary.
+* Recognize creating an archive on /dev/null, so Amanda works faster.
+* Object to the creation of an empty archive (like in `tar cf FILE').
+* Barely start implementing --posix and POSIXLY_CORRECT.
+
+Extraction
+* Make a better job at restoring file and directory attributes.
+* Automatically attempt deleting existing files when in the way.
+* Option --unlink-first (-U) removes most files prior to extraction.
+* Option --recursive-unlink removes non-empty directories when in the way.
+* Option --numeric-owner ignores owner/group names, it uses UID/GID instead.
+* Use global umask when creating missing intermediate directories.
+* When symlinks are not available, extract symbolic links as hard links.
+* Diagnose extraction of contiguous files as regular files.
+* New --backup, --suffix and --version-control options.
+
+Various changes
+* Better support of huge archives with --tape-length and --totals.
+* Rename option --read-full-blocks (-B) to --read-full-records (-B).
+* Rename option --block-size (-b) to --blocking-factor (-b).
+* Rename option --record-number (-R) to --block-number (-R).
+* With --block-number (-R), report null blocks and end of file.
+* Implement --record-size for introducing a size in bytes.
+* Delete --block-compress option and rather decide it automatically.
+* Rename option --modification-time to --touch.
+
+Many bugs are squashed, while others still run free.
+\f
+Version 1.11.8 - François Pinard, 1995-06.
+
+* Messages available in French, German, Portuguese and Swedish.
+* The distribution provides a rudimentary Texinfo manual.
+* The device defaults to stdin/stdout, unless overridden by the installer.
+* Option --sparse (-S) should work on more systems.
+* Option --rsh-command may select an alternative remote shell program.
+
+Most changes are internal, and should yield better portability.
\f
-==================
+Version 1.11.2 - Michael Bushnell, 1993-03.
+
+* Changes in backup scripts: cleaned up considerably; notices error
+conditions better over rsh; DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT is now an option in
+backup-specs; new file dump-remind is an example of a
+DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT.
+
+* Superfluous "Reading dirname" was a bug; fixed.
+
+* Incompatibility problems with a bug on Solaris are fixed.
+
+* New option --gzip (aliases are --ungzip and -z); calls gzip instead
+of compress. Also, --use-compress-program lets you specify any
+compress program. --compress-block is renamed --block-compress and
+now requires one of the three compression options to be specified.
+
+* Several error messages are cleaned up.
+
+* Directory owners are now set properly when running as root.
+
+* Provide DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT in backup-specs as a possible option
+for --info-script.
+
+* Behave better with broken rmt servers.
+
+* Dump scripts no longer use --atime-preserve; this causes a nasty probem.
+
+* Several Makefile cleanups.
+\f
+Version 1.11.1 - Michael Bushnell, 1992-09.
+
+* Many bug fixes.
+\f
+Version 1.11 - Michael Bushnell, 1992-09.
+Version 1.10.16 - 1992-07.
+Version 1.10.15 - 1992-06.
+Version 1.10.14 - 1992-05.
+Version 1.10.13 - 1992-01.
+
+* Many bug fixes.
+
+* Now uses GNU standard configure, generated by Autoconf.
-User-visible changes since 1.09:
+* Long options now use `--'; use of `+' is deprecated and support
+for it will eventually be removed.
-Filename to -G is optional. -C works right.
-Names +newer and +newer-mtime work right.
+* New option --null causes filenames read by -T to be
+null-terminated, and causes -C to be ignored.
--g is now +incremental
--G is now +listed-incremental
+* New option --remove-files deletes files (but not directories)
+after they are added to the archive.
-Sparse files now work correctly.
+* New option --ignore-failed-read prevents read-errors from affecting
+the exit status.
-+volume is now called +label.
+* New option --checkpoint prints occasional messages as the tape
+is being read or written.
-+exclude now takes a filename argument, and +exclude-from does what
-+exclude used to do.
+* New option --show-omitted-dirs prints the names of directories
+omitted from the archive.
-Exit status is now correct.
+* Some tape drives which use a non-standard method of indicating
+end-of-tape now work correctly with multi-tape archives.
-+totals keeps track of total I/O and prints it when tar exits.
+* --volno-file: Read the volume number used in prompting the user
+(but not in recording volume ID's on the archive) from a file.
-When using +label with +extract, the label is now a regexp.
+* When using --multi-volume, you can now give multiple -f arguments;
+the various tape drives will get used in sequence and then wrap
+around to the beginning.
-New option +tape-length (-L) does multi-volume handling like BSD dump:
-you tell tar how big the tape is and it will prompt at that point
-instead of waiting for a write error.
+* Remote archive names no longer have to be in /dev: any file with a
+`:' is interpreted as remote. If new option --force-local is given,
+then even archive files with a `:' are considered local.
+
+* New option --atime-preserve restores (if possible) atimes to
+their original values after dumping the file.
+
+* No longer does tar confusingly dump "." when you don't tell it
+what to dump.
+
+* When extracting directories, tar now correctly restores their
+modification and access times.
+
+* Longnames support is redone differently--long name info directly
+precedes the long-named file or link in the archive, so you no
+longer have to wait for the extract to hit the end of the tape for
+long names to work.
+\f
+Version 1.10 - Michael Bushnell, 1991-07.
+
+* Filename to -G is optional. -C works right. Names +newer and
++newer-mtime work right.
+
+* -g is now +incremental, -G is now +listed-incremental.
+
+* Sparse files now work correctly.
+
+* +volume is now called +label.
+
+* +exclude now takes a filename argument, and +exclude-from does
+what +exclude used to do.
+
+* Exit status is now correct.
+
+* +totals keeps track of total I/O and prints it when tar exits.
+
+* When using +label with +extract, the label is now a regexp.
+
+* New option +tape-length (-L) does multi-volume handling like BSD
+dump: you tell tar how big the tape is and it will prompt at that
+point instead of waiting for a write error.
+
+* New backup scripts level-0 and level-1 which might be useful
+to people. They use a file "backup-specs" for information, and
+shouldn't need local modification. These are what we use to do
+all our backups at the FSF.
+\f
+Version 1.09 - Jay Fenlason, 1990-10.
+Version 1.08 - Jay Fenlason, 1990-01.
+Versions 1.07 back to 1.00 by Jay Fenlason.
-New backup scripts level-0 and level-1 which might be useful to
-people. They use a file "backup-specs" for information, and shouldn't
-need local modification. These are what we use to do all our backups
-at the FSF.
+* See ChangeLog for more details.
projects / chaz / tar / blobdiff