Updated

[chaz/tar] / TODO

diff --git a/TODO b/TODO
index bf1e517cdff44194e2a63875d432748b09cf01f2..e756ff3d64ad001817f444afd7a76f25e652b0d8 100644 (file)
--- a/TODO
+++ b/TODO
@@ -2,38 +2,23 @@ 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.
-
-* 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 (--sparse, --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.)
-
-     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.
+          (GNU tar --check-links option)
 
-  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.
+  Perhaps we could announce a phase-in period where "l" changes in semantics.
+  In the meanwhile we could make the "l" semantics to be determined by the
+  value of POSIXLY_CORRECT variable.
 
 * Interoperate better with Joerg Schilling's star implementation.
 
@@ -45,6 +30,27 @@ 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 an option to cut away the first N output path elements:
+
+  From: Marc Haber <mh+debian-bugs@zugschlus.de>
+  Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2003 08:55:31 +0200
+
+  some archives have members like
+  foo/bar
+  foo/baz
+  foo/bam
+  
+  When I now want to extract the three members bar, baz and bam to the
+  directory fom instead foo, I need to extract to foo and then to move
+  the files over manually.
+
+  patch(1) solves that problem by offering an option taking the number
+  of path elements to cut away before using the path name. With an
+  option like that, the above problem could be solved with
+
+  tar --extract --cut-path-elements 1 --directory fom
+
+\f  
 * Copyright notice
 
   Copyright (C) 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@@ -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: