-GNU tar NEWS - User visible changes. 2010-09-17
+GNU tar NEWS - User visible changes. 2010-10-24
Please send GNU tar bug reports to <bug-tar@gnu.org>
\f
-version 1.23.90 - (Git)
+version 1.24 - Sergey Poznyakoff, 2010-10-24
* The --full-time option.
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
** --remove-files
-Tar --remove-files failed to remove a directory which contained
+`Tar --remove-files' failed to remove a directory which contained
symlinks to another files within that directory.
** --test-label behavior