README for GNU tar
+See the end of file for copying conditions.
- Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000,
- 2001, 2003 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.
-
+* Introduction
Please glance through *all* sections of this
`README' file before starting configuration. Also make sure you read files
Besides those configure options documented in files `INSTALL' and
`ABOUT-NLS', an extra option may be accepted after `./configure':
-* `--disable-largefile' omits support for large files, even if the
-operating system supports large files. Typically, large files are
-those larger on 2 GB on a 32-bit host.
+* Install
+
+** Selecting the default archive format.
The default archive format is GNU, this can be overridden by
presetting DEFAULT_ARCHIVE_FORMAT while configuring. The allowed
-values are GNU, V7, OLDGNU and POSIX.
+values are GNU, V7, OLDGNU, USTAR and POSIX.
+
+** Selecting the default archive device
The default archive device is now `stdin' on read and `stdout' on write.
The installer can still override this by presetting `DEFAULT_ARCHIVE'
`-[0-7]lmh' options in `tar' are then derived automatically). Similarly,
`DEFAULT_BLOCKING' can be preset to something else than 20.
-For comprehensive modifications to GNU tar, you might need tools beyond
-those used in simple installations. Fully install GNU m4 1.4 first,
-and only then, Autoconf 2.57 or later. Install Perl, then Automake
-1.7.5 or later. Also, install gettext 0.12.1 or later. You might
-need Bison 1.875 or later, and GNU tar itself. All are available on
-GNU archive sites, like in ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/.
-
-Send bug reports to <bug-tar@gnu.org>. A bug report should contain
-an adequate description of the problem, your input, what you expected,
-what you got, and why this is wrong. Diffs are welcome, but they only
-describe a solution, from which the problem might be uneasy to infer.
-If needed, submit actual data files with your report. Small data files
-are preferred. Big files may sometimes be necessary, but do not send them
-to the report address; rather take special arrangement with the maintainer.
-
-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 to <bug-tar@gnu.org>.
-
+** `--disable-largefile' omits support for large files, even if the
+operating system supports large files. Typically, large files are
+those larger on 2 GB on a 32-bit host.
-Installation hints
-------------------
+* Installation hints
Here are a few hints which might help installing `tar' on some systems.
-* gzip and bzip2.
+** 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
incompatibility by using a shell command like
`gzip -d <file.tar.gz | tar -xzf -'.
-* Solaris issues.
+** 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
extended headers in an undocumented format. GNU tar does not
understand these headers.
-* Static linking.
+** Static linking.
Some platform will, by default, prepare a smaller `tar' executable
which depends on shared libraries. Since GNU `tar' may be used for
Solaris (vendor) -Bstatic
SunOS (vendor) -Bstatic
-* Failed tests `ignfail.sh' or `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 with
GNU Make for the last few years. We would like a general solution.
-* BSD compatibility matters.
+** BSD compatibility matters.
Set LIBS to `-lbsd' before configuration (see `INSTALL') if the linker
complains about `bsd_ioctl' (Slackware). Also set CPPFLAGS to
`-I/usr/include/bsd' if <sgtty.h> is not found (Slackware).
-* OPENStep 4.2 swap files
+** OPENStep 4.2 swap files
Tar cannot read the file /private/vm/swapfile.front (even as root).
This file is not a real file, but some kind of uncompressed view of
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.
-* File attributes.
+** File attributes.
About *security*, it is probable that future releases of `tar' will have
some behavior changed. There are many pending suggestions to choose from.
properties. We did not successfully sorted all these out yet. Currently,
the `lchown' call will be used if available, but that's all.
-* POSIX compliance.
+** POSIX compliance.
-GNU `tar' implements an early draft of the POSIX 1003.1 `ustar' standard
-which is different from the final standard. This will be progressively
-corrected over the incoming few years. Don't be mislead by the mere
-existence of the --posix option. Later releases will become able to
-read truly POSIX archives, and also to produce them under option. (Also,
-if you look at the internals, don't take the GNU extensions you see for
-granted, as they are planned to change.) GNU tar 2.0 will produce POSIX
-archives by default, but there is a long way before we get there.
+GNU `tar' is able to create archive in the following formats:
+
+ *** The format of UNIX version 7
+ *** POSIX.1-1988 format, also known as "ustar format"
+ *** POSIX.1-2001 format, also known as "pax format"
+ *** Old GNU format (described below)
+
+In addition to those, GNU `tar' is also able to read archives
+produced by `star' archiver.
+
+A so called `Old GNU' format is based on an early draft of the
+POSIX 1003.1 `ustar' standard which is different from the final
+standard. It defines its extensions (such as incremental backups
+and handling of the long file names) in a way incompatible with
+any existing tar archive format, therefore the use of old GNU
+format is strongly discouraged.
+
+Please read the file NEWS for more information about POSIX compliance
+and new `tar' features.
* What's next?
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.
+
+* Bug reporting.
+
+Send bug reports to <bug-tar@gnu.org>. A bug report should contain
+an adequate description of the problem, your input, what you expected,
+what you got, and why this is wrong. Diffs are welcome, but they only
+describe a solution, from which the problem might be uneasy to infer.
+If needed, submit actual data files with your report. Small data files
+are preferred. Big files may sometimes be necessary, but do not send them
+to the report address; rather take special arrangement with the maintainer.
+
+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 to <bug-tar@gnu.org>.
+
+\f
+* Copying
+
+ Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000,
+ 2001, 2003, 2004 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.
+
+\f
+Local Variables:
+mode: outline
+paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
+version-control: never
+End:
+
projects / chaz / tar / commitdiff
