+README for GNU tar
+
+ Copyright 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001
+ Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+
+ This file is part of GNU tar.
+
+ GNU tar is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+ the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
+ any later version.
+
+ GNU tar is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
+ GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+ You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ along with tar; see the file COPYING. If not, write to
+ the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330,
+ Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
+
+
Please glance through *all* sections of this
`README' file before starting configuration. Also make sure you read files
`ABOUT-NLS' and `INSTALL' if you are not familiar with them already.
GNU `tar' is derived from John Gilmore's public domain `tar'.
See file `ABOUT-NLS' for how to customize this program to your language.
-See file `BACKLOG' for a summary of pending mail and articles.
See file `COPYING' for copying conditions.
See file `INSTALL' for compilation and installation instructions.
See file `PORTS' for various ports of GNU tar to non-Unix systems.
Your feedback will help us to make a better and more portable package.
Consider documentation errors as bugs, and report them as such. If you
develop anything pertaining to `tar' or have suggestions, let us know
-and share your findings by writing at `tar-forum@iro.umontreal.ca'.
+and share your findings by writing to <bug-tar@gnu.org>.
-.--------------------.
-| Installation hints |
-`--------------------'
+
+Installation hints
+------------------
Here are a few hints which might help installing `tar' on some systems.
+* gzip and bzip2.
+
+GNU tar uses the gzip and bzip2 programs to read and write compressed
+archives. If you don't have these programs already, you need to
+install them. Their sources can be found at:
+
+ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gzip/
+http://sourceware.cygnus.com/bzip2/
+
+If you see the following symptoms:
+
+ $ tar -xzf file.tar.gz
+ gzip: stdin: decompression OK, trailing garbage ignored
+ tar: Child returned status 2
+
+then you have encountered a gzip incompatibility that should be fixed
+in gzip test version 1.3, which as of this writing is available at
+<ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/gzip/>. You can work around the
+incompatibility by using a shell command like
+ `gzip -d <file.tar.gz | tar -xzf -'.
+
+* Solaris issues.
+
+GNU tar exercises many features that can cause problems with older GCC
+versions. In particular, GCC 2.8.1 (sparc, -O1 or -O2) is known to
+miscompile GNU tar. No compiler-related problems have been reported
+when using GCC 2.95.2 or later.
+
+Recent versions of Solaris tar sport a new -E option to generate
+extended headers in an undocumented format. GNU tar does not
+understand these headers.
+
* Static linking.
Some platform will, by default, prepare a smaller `tar' executable
Platform Compiler LDFLAGS
(any) Gnu C -static
- AIX (vendor) "-bnso -bI:/lib/syscalls.exp"
+ AIX (vendor) -bnso -bI:/lib/syscalls.exp
HPUX (vendor) -Wl,-a,archive
IRIX (vendor) -non_shared
OSF (vendor) -non_shared
Solaris (vendor) -Bstatic
SunOS (vendor) -Bstatic
-* Failed `incremen.sh'.
+* Failed tests `ignfail.sh' or `incremen.sh'.
In an NFS environment, lack of synchronization between machine clocks
might create difficulties to any tool comparing dates and file time stamps,
-like `tar' in incremental dumps. This has been a recurrent problem in
-GNU Makefiles for the last few years. We would like a general solution.
+like `tar' in incremental dumps. This has been a recurrent problem with
+GNU Make for the last few years. We would like a general solution.
* BSD compatibility matters.
the real compressed swap file; there is no reason to back it up, so
the simplest workaround is to avoid tarring this file.
-.------------------.
-| Special topics. |
-`------------------'
+
+Special topics
+--------------
Here are a few special matters about GNU `tar', not related to build
matters. See previous section for such.
* What's next?
-The emphasis from 1.11.2 to 1.14 has been on solving the main portability,
-execution or usability bugs. This was accompanied all over with an
-internal cleanup in the sources, and the reassembly of a `tar' manual.
-
-The `BACKLOG' file shows approximate priorities of the many pending
-problems and suggestions. Besides pending problems and all other matters
-listed above, the cleanup is planned to continue and extend to the general
-organization of the code, preparing a long time in advance for a possible
-merge of the `cpio' and `tar' distributions, into some common `paxutils'.
-We also want to address some long-awaited performance issues (for example:
-double buffering) or enhancements (for example: per-file compression).
+In the future we will try to release tar-1.14 as soon as possible and
+start merging with paxutils afterwards. We'll also try to rewrite
+some parts of the documentation after paxutils has been merged.