GNU tar NEWS - User visible changes.
Please send GNU tar bug reports to <bug-tar@gnu.org>
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-version 1.15.91 - Sergey Poznyakoff, (CVS version)
+* Support for reading ustar type 'N' header logical records has been removed.
+ This GNU extension was generated only by very old versions of GNU 'tar'.
+ Unfortunately its implementation had security holes; see
+ <http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/fulldisclosure/2006-11/0344.html>.
+ We don't expect that any tar archives in practical use have type 'N'
+ records, but if you have one and you trust its contents, you can
+ decode it with GNU tar 1.16 or earlier.
+
+version 1.16 - Sergey Poznyakoff, 2006-10-21
+
+* After creating an archive, tar exits with code 1 if some files were
+changed while being read. Previous versions exited with code 2 (fatal
+error), and only if some files were truncated while being archived.
+
+* New option --mtime allows to set modification times for all archive
+members during creation.
+
+* Bug fixes
+** Avoid running off file descriptors when using multiple -C options.
+** tar --index-file=FILE --file=- sent the archive to FILE, and
+the listing to stderr.
+
+\f
+version 1.15.91 - Sergey Poznyakoff, 2006-06-16
* Incompatible changes
is now interpreted as a request to extract from the archive the file
named '*.c'.
-To treat member names as globbing patterns, use --wildcards option.
-So, if you wish tar to mimic the behavior of versions up to 1.15.90,
-set 'TAR_OPTIONS=--wildcards'.
+To treat member names as globbing patterns, use --wildcards option.
+If you wish tar to mimic the behavior of versions up to 1.15.90,
+add --wildcards to the value of the environment variable TAR_OPTIONS.
-The exact way tar interprets member names is controlled by the
+The exact way in which tar interprets member names is controlled by the
following command line options:
- --wildcards use wildcards
+ --wildcards use wildcards
--anchored patterns match file name start
--ignore-case ignore case
--wildcards-match-slash wildcards match `/'
Each of these options has a '--no-' counterpart that disables its
effect (e.g. --no-wildcards).
-These options affect both the interpretation of member names from
+These options affect both the interpretation of member names from
command line and that of the exclusion patterns (given with --exclude
and --exclude-from options). The defaults are:
** Short option -l is now an alias of --check-links option, which complies
with UNIX98. This ends the transition period started with version 1.14.
-
+
* New features
** New option --transform allows to transform file names before storing them
in the archive or member names before extracting. The option takes a
sed replace expression as its argument. For example,
- tar cf foo.tar --transform 's,^,prefix/'
+ tar cf foo.tar --transform 's,^,prefix/,'
will add 'prefix/' to all file names stored in foo.tar.
-** --strip-components option works when deleting and comparing.
+** --strip-components option works when deleting and comparing. In previous
+versions it worked only with --extract.
** New option --show-transformed-names enables display of transformed file
-or archive. In particular, when creating archive in verbose mode,
-the option lists member names as stored in the archive. It
-generalizes --show-stored-names option, introduced in 1.15.90. In
-particular, when creating an archive in verbose mode, it lists member
-names as stored in the archive, i.e., with any eventual prefixes
+or archive. It generalizes --show-stored-names option, introduced in
+1.15.90. In particular, when creating an archive in verbose mode, it lists
+member names as stored in the archive, i.e., with any eventual prefixes
removed and file name transformations applied. The option is useful,
for example, while comparing `tar cv' and `tar tv' outputs.
-** New incremental snapshot file format keeps information about file names
+** New incremental snapshot file format keeps information about file names
as well as that about directories.
+** The --checkpoint option takes an optional argument specifying the number
+of records between the two successive checkpoints. Optional dot
+starting the argument intructs tar to print dots instead of textual
+checkpoints.
+
+** The --totals option can be used with any tar operation (previous versions
+understood it only with --create). If an argument to this option is
+given, it specifies the signal upon delivery of which the statistics
+is to be printed. Both forms of this option (with and without
+argument) can be given to in a single invocation of tar.
+
+* Bug fixes
+** Detect attempts to update compressed archives.
+
\f
version 1.15.90 - Sergey Poznyakoff, 2006-02-19