-GNU tar NEWS - User visible changes. 2009-03-04
+GNU tar NEWS - User visible changes. 2009-10-07
Please send GNU tar bug reports to <bug-tar@gnu.org>
\f
-version 1.21.90 (CVS)
+version 1.22.90 (Git)
+
+* Record size autodetection
+
+When listing or extracting archives, the actual record size is
+reported only if the archive is read from a device (as opposed
+to regular files and pipes).
+
+* Seekable archives
+
+When a read-only operation (e.g. --list or --extract) is requested
+on a regular file, tar attemtps to speed up accesses by using lseek.
+
+* New command line option `--warning'
+
+The `--warning' command line option allows to suppress or enable
+particular warning messages during `tar' run. It takes a single
+argument (a `keyword'), identifying the class of warning messages
+to affect. If the argument is prefixed with `no-', such warning
+messages are suppressed. For example,
+
+ tar --warning=no-alone-zero-block -x -f archive
+
+suppresses the output of `A lone zero block' diagnostics, which is
+normally issued if `archive' ends with a single block of zeros.
+
+* New command line option `--level'
+
+The `--level=N' option sets the incremental dump level N. It
+is valid when used in conjunction with the -c and --listed-incremental
+options. So far the only meaningful value for N is 0. The
+`--level=0' option forces creating the level 0 dump, by truncating
+the snapshot file if it exists.
+
+* Files removed during incremental dumps
+
+If a file or directory is removed while incremental dump is
+in progress, tar exact actions depend on whether this file
+was explicitly listed in the command line, or was gathered
+during file system scan.
+
+If the file was explicitly listed in the command line, tar
+issues error message and exits with the code 2, meaning
+fatal error.
+
+Otherwise, if the file was gathered during the file system
+scan, tar issues a warning, saying "File removed before we read it",
+and sets the exit code to 1, which means "some files differ".
+If the --warning=no-file-removed option is given, no warning
+is issued and the exit code remains 0.
+
+* Modification times of PAX extended headers.
+
+Modification times in the ustar header blocks for the
+extended headers are set to the mtimes of the corresponding archive
+members. This can be overridden by the
+
+ --pax-opion='exthdr.mtime=STRING'
+
+command line option. The STRING is either the number of seconds since
+the Epoch or a `Time reference' (see below).
+
+Modification times in the ustar header blocks for the global
+extended headers are set to the time when tar was invoked.
+
+This can be overridden by the
+
+ --pax-opion='globexthdr.mtime=STRING'
+
+command line option. The STRING is either the number of seconds since
+the Epoch or a `Time reference' (see below).
+
+* Time references in --pax-option argument.
+
+Any value from the --pax-option argument that is enclosed in a pair
+of curly braces. In that case, the string between the braces is
+understood either as a textual time representation, as described in
+chapter 7, "Date input formats", of the Tar manual, or as a name of
+the existing file, starting with `/' or `.'. In the latter
+case, the value is replaced with the modification time of that file.
+
+* Bugfixes
+** Fix handling of hard link targets by -c --transform.
+** Fix hard links recognition with -c --remove-files.
+** Fix restoring files from backup (debian bug #508199).
+** Correctly restore modes and permissions on existing directories.
+** The --remove-files option removes the files only if they were
+succesfully stored in the archive.
+
+\f
+version 1.22 - Sergey Poznyakoff, 2009-03-05
* Support for xz compression
-Tar uses xz for compression if at least one of the following
-conditions is met:
+Tar uses xz for compression if one of the following conditions is met:
1. The option --xz or -J (see below) is used.
2. The xz binary is set as compressor using --use-compress-program option.
3. The file name of the archive being created ends in `.xz' and
auto-compress option (-a) is used.
-Xz is used for decompression if at least one of the following
-conditions is met:
+Xz is used for decompression if one of the following conditions is met:
1. The option --xz or -J is used.
2. The xz binary is set as compressor using --use-compress-program option.
3. The file is recognized as xz compressed stream data.
-* Short option -J
-
-The decision to assign -J option was taken just before the XZ format
-has been officially declared stable. Now, that stable xz tools are
-available, the -J option is re-assigned as a short equivalent of --xz.
+* Short option -J reassigned as a short equivalent of --xz
* New option -I
The -I option is assigned as a short equivalent for
--use-compress-program.
+* The --no-recursive option works in incremental mode.
+
\f
version 1.21 - Sergey Poznyakoff, 2008-12-27
projects / chaz / tar / blobdiff