tar: extract symlink attributes, close some symlink-related races

[chaz/tar] / NEWS

diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index d6712d0fdf660691e242b49815bd0f868c8d3aeb..58fd2ff3e048787ed81dcd44c9119adaf9471267 100644 (file)
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-GNU tar NEWS - User visible changes. 2010-07-16
+GNU tar NEWS - User visible changes. 2010-09-17
 Please send GNU tar bug reports to <bug-tar@gnu.org>
 
 \f
@@ -11,6 +11,28 @@ 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.
+
 ** Spurious error diagnostics on broken pipe.
 
 When receiving SIGPIPE, tar would exit with error status and