tar: more reliable directory traversal when creating archives

[chaz/tar] / NEWS

diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index a84873da6eb888645775159058c654ffb026f901..b305f26a27348edb86cf13b53980b832d5cfa5c0 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. 2010-09-06
 Please send GNU tar bug reports to <bug-tar@gnu.org>
 
 \f
@@ -11,6 +11,14 @@ 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.  The new checks are
+implemented via the openat, fstatat, and readlinkat calls standardized
+by POSIX.1-2008.  On an older system that lacks these calls, tar
+emulates them at some cost in efficiency and reliability.
+
 ** Spurious error diagnostics on broken pipe.
 
 When receiving SIGPIPE, tar would exit with error status and
@@ -46,12 +54,12 @@ update of an archive:
 
   tar -rf archive --label 'My volume' .
 
-This did not work in previous versions, in spite of what the docs said.  
+This did not work in previous versions, in spite of what the docs said.
 
 ** --record-size and --tape-length (-L) options
 
 Usual size suffixes are allowed for these options.  For example,
--L10k stands for a 10 kilobyte tape length. 
+-L10k stands for a 10 kilobyte tape length.
 
 ** Fix dead loop on extracting existing symlinks with the -k option.
 
@@ -134,7 +142,7 @@ 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 represents a time reference.  The string between the 
+of curly braces represents a time reference.  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
 an existing file, starting with `/' or `.'.  In the latter
@@ -168,14 +176,14 @@ version 1.22 - Sergey Poznyakoff, 2009-03-05
 
 * Support for xz compression
 
-Tar uses xz for compression if 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 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.
@@ -228,7 +236,7 @@ control type of archive members affected by them.  The flags are:
  - s
    Apply transformation to symbolic link targets.
 
- - h  
+ - h
    Apply transformation to hard link targets.
 
 Corresponding upper-case letters negate the meaning, so that
@@ -307,7 +315,7 @@ during both creation and extraction.  Tar 1.19 used them only
 during extraction.
 
 For a detailed description, see chapter 6.7 "Modifying File and Member
-Names". 
+Names".
 
 * Info (end-of-volume) scripts
 
@@ -334,8 +342,8 @@ control systems, e.g. "CVS/", ".svn/", etc.
 
 The following options now work with incremental archives as well:
 
-  --exclude-caches       
-  --exclude-caches-all   
+  --exclude-caches
+  --exclude-caches-all
   --exclude-tag
   --exclude-tag-all
   --exclude-tag-under
@@ -346,7 +354,7 @@ Previous versions always stored absolute file names in rename
 records, even if -P was not used. This is fixed: rename records
 contain file names processed in accordance with the command line
 settings.
-  
+
 * Fix --version output.
 
 * Recognition of broken archives.