Updated

[chaz/tar] / TODO

diff --git a/TODO b/TODO
index bf1e517cdff44194e2a63875d432748b09cf01f2..9492ebc8703049d9becd05af0ffe2c8eb5bf0184 100644 (file)
--- a/TODO
+++ b/TODO
@@ -2,38 +2,26 @@ Suggestions for improving GNU tar.
 
 * Incorporate fixes from major distributions, e.g., Debian GNU/Linux.
 
-* Fix tar so that it can read and write POSIX.1-1990 tar archives.
+* --append should bail out if the two archives are of different types.
 
-* Add support for POSIX 1003.1-2001 tar archives
-  (along with technical corrections to the standard since 2001).
+* Add support for GNU private keywords in POSIX 1003.1-2001 headers,
+so that the GNU extensions (--incremental, --label and
+--multi-volume) may be used with POSIX archives.
 
 * Add support for a 'pax' command that conforms to POSIX 1003.1-2001.
   This would unify paxutils with tar.
 
 * Remove command-line incompatibilities between GNU tar and UNIX tar
-  as specified by UNIX98.  The main problems are:
+  as specified by UNIX98.  The main problem is:
 
      l   GNU tar doesn't cross filesystem boundaries.
         UNIX98 tar warns if all links cannot be resolved.
-          (GNU tar has no similar option.)
+          (GNU tar --check-links option)
 
-     o   GNU tar says output old format.
-        UNIX98 tar says don't chown files after extracting
-          (GNU tar uses "--no-same-owner" for this).
-
-  Many people rely on GNU tar's "l" and "o" so we can't abruptly change
-  GNU tar to be compatible with UNIX98 tar.
-
-  However, "o" is relatively easy: we can extend GNU tar so that "o" is
-  a synonym for --no-same-owner when extracting, keeping "o"'s current
-  semantics when creating.  This is a bit of a hack, but it shouldn't
-  break things.
-
-  "l" will be harder, since it's a clear incompatibility.  Perhaps we
-  could announce a phase-in period where "l" changes in semantics.
-  However, the first step should be to support the UNIX98 semantics,
-  using a long option, without changing the meaning of "l" for now.  That
-  will give people a migration strategy.
+  Currently tar prints a warning when this option is used. Somewhere
+  in the future its semantics will be changed to that of --check-links.
+  In the meanwhile we should announce a phase-in period where "l"
+  changes in semantics.           
 
 * Interoperate better with Joerg Schilling's star implementation.
 
@@ -45,9 +33,27 @@ Suggestions for improving GNU tar.
   It would be useful to be able to use '--remove-files' with '--diff',
   to remove all files that compare successfully, when verifying a backup.
 
+* Add tests for testing the added functonality.
+
+* Consider this:
+
+  From: Dennis Pund
+  Subject: TAR suggestion...
+  Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 18:26:36 -0500 (EST)
+
+  What I would like to do is:
+
+  foo my.tar.gz | tar -xzOf - | tar -cMf - -L 650000 - | bar
+
+  where 'foo' is a program that retrieves the archive and streams it
+  to stdout and bar is a program that streams the stdin to CDR.
+
+  (http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-utils/2002-05/msg00022.html)
+
+\f  
 * Copyright notice
 
-  Copyright (C) 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+  Copyright (C) 2003, 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 
   This file is part of GNU tar.
 
@@ -65,3 +71,9 @@ Suggestions for improving GNU tar.
   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.
+
+\f
+Local variables:
+mode: outline
+paragraph-separate: "[         \f]*$"
+end: