From 1e1fc0336bea2f273b8c6fdb376735ce13887899 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Paul Eggert Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2011 13:07:10 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] * doc/tar.texi (Option Summary, absolute): Document -P better, by describing how it deals with symbolic links on extraction. --- doc/tar.texi | 11 ++++++++--- 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/doc/tar.texi b/doc/tar.texi index 8015b2b..cf30592 100644 --- a/doc/tar.texi +++ b/doc/tar.texi @@ -2358,8 +2358,9 @@ exist in the archive. @xref{update}. @itemx -P Normally when creating an archive, @command{tar} strips an initial -@samp{/} from member names. This option disables that behavior. -@xref{absolute}. +@samp{/} from member names, and when extracting from an archive @command{tar} +treats names specially if they have initial @samp{/} or internal +@samp{..}. This option disables that behavior. @xref{absolute}. @opsummary{after-date} @item --after-date @@ -8531,6 +8532,10 @@ is not, generally speaking, the same as the one you'd get running scripts for comparing both outputs. @xref{listing member and file names}, for the information on how to handle this case.}. +Symbolic links containing @file{..} or leading @samp{/} can also cause +problems when extracting, so @command{tar} normally extracts them last; +it may create empty files as placeholders during extraction. + If you use the @option{--absolute-names} (@option{-P}) option, @command{tar} will do none of these transformations. @@ -8554,7 +8559,7 @@ to transfer files between systems.} @table @option @item --absolute-names Preserves full file names (including superior directory names) when -archiving files. Preserves leading slash when extracting files. +archiving and extracting files. @end table -- 2.45.2