Dogcows Code - chaz/tar/blob - NEWS

   1 GNU tar NEWS - User visible changes.
   2 Copyright 1994, 1995-1998, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
   3
   4 version 1.12.64016 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-01.
   5
   6 * Support for large files, e.g. files larger than 2 GB on many 32-bit hosts.
   7   Also, support for larger uids, device ids, etc.
   8 * Many bug fixes.
   9 * This release is intended only as a bugfix release.  A more ambitious version,
  10   with new features, is also available as part of paxutils.  Please see:
  11     http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/contrib/paxutils/
  12   The bug fixes in this release are intended to be merged with paxutils
  13   at some point, but they haven't been merged as of this writing.
  14
  15 \f
  16 Version 1.12 - François Pinard, 1997-04.
  17
  18 Sensitive matters
  19 * Use shell globbing patterns for --label, instead of regular expressions.
  20 * Do not quote anymore internally over the quoting done by the shell.
  21
  22 Output for humans
  23 * Offer internationalisation capabilities of most recent GNU gettext.
  24 * Messages available in many more languages, thanks to all translators!
  25 * Usage of ISO 8601 dates in listings, instead of local American dates.
  26 * More normalisation and cleanup in error messages.
  27
  28 Creation
  29 * For helping using tar with find, offer a --no-recursion option.
  30 * Implement --numeric-owner for ignoring symbolic names at create time.
  31 * New --owner, --group --mode options, still preliminary.
  32 * Recognise creating an archive on /dev/null, so Amanda works faster.
  33 * Object to the creation of an empty archive (like in `tar cf FILE').
  34 * Barely start implementing --posix and POSIXLY_CORRECT.
  35
  36 Extraction
  37 * Make a better job at restoring file and directory attributes.
  38 * Automatically attempt deleting existing files when in the way.
  39 * Option --unlink-first (-U) removes most files prior to extraction.
  40 * Option --recursive-unlink removes non-empty directories when in the way.
  41 * Option --numeric-owner ignores owner/group names, it uses UID/GID instead.
  42 * Use global umask when creating missing intermediate directories.
  43 * When symlinks are not available, extract symbolic links as hard links.
  44 * Diagnose extraction of contiguous files as regular files.
  45 * New --backup, --suffix and --version-control options.
  46
  47 Various changes
  48 * Better support of huge archives with --tape-length and --totals.
  49 * Rename option --read-full-blocks (-B) to --read-full-records (-B).
  50 * Rename option --block-size (-b) to --blocking-factor (-b).
  51 * Rename option --record-number (-R) to --block-number (-R).
  52 * With --block-number (-R), report null blocks and end of file.
  53 * Implement --record-size for introducing a size in bytes.
  54 * Delete --block-compress option and rather decide it automatically.
  55 * Rename option --modification-time to --touch.
  56
  57 Many bugs are squashed, while others still run free.
  58 \f
  59 Version 1.11.8 - François Pinard, 1995-06.
  60
  61 * Messages available in French, German, Portuguese and Swedish.
  62 * The distribution provides a rudimentary Texinfo manual.
  63 * The device defaults to stdin/stdout, unless overridden by the installer.
  64 * Option --sparse (-S) should work on more systems.
  65 * Option --rsh-command may select an alternative remote shell program.
  66
  67 Most changes are internal, and should yield better portability.
  68 \f
  69 Version 1.11.2 - Michael Bushnell, 1993-03.
  70
  71 * Changes in backup scripts: cleaned up considerably; notices error
  72 conditions better over rsh; DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT is now an option in
  73 backup-specs; new file dump-remind is an example of a
  74 DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT.
  75
  76 * Superfluous "Reading dirname" was a bug; fixed.
  77
  78 * Incompatibility problems with a bug on Solaris are fixed.
  79
  80 * New option --gzip (aliases are --ungzip and -z); calls gzip instead
  81 of compress.  Also, --use-compress-program lets you specify any
  82 compress program.  --compress-block is renamed --block-compress and
  83 now requires one of the three compression options to be specified.
  84
  85 * Several error messages are cleaned up.
  86
  87 * Directory owners are now set properly when running as root.
  88
  89 * Provide DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT in backup-specs as a possible option
  90 for --info-script.
  91
  92 * Behave better with broken rmt servers.
  93
  94 * Dump scripts no longer use --atime-preserve; this causes a nasty probem.
  95
  96 * Several Makefile cleanups.
  97 \f
  98 Version 1.11.1 - Michael Bushnell, 1992-09.
  99
 100 * Many bug fixes.
 101 \f
 102 Version 1.11 - Michael Bushnell, 1992-09.
 103 Version 1.10.16 - 1992-07.
 104 Version 1.10.15 - 1992-06.
 105 Version 1.10.14 - 1992-05.
 106 Version 1.10.13 - 1992-01.
 107
 108 * Many bug fixes.
 109
 110 * Now uses GNU standard configure, generated by Autoconf.
 111
 112 * Long options now use `--'; use of `+' is deprecated and support
 113 for it will eventually be removed.
 114
 115 * New option --null causes filenames read by -T to be
 116 null-terminated, and causes -C to be ignored.
 117
 118 * New option --remove-files deletes files (but not directories)
 119 after they are added to the archive.
 120
 121 * New option --ignore-failed-read prevents read-errors from affecting
 122 the exit status.
 123
 124 * New option --checkpoint prints occasional messages as the tape
 125 is being read or written.
 126
 127 * New option --show-omitted-dirs prints the names of directories
 128 omitted from the archive.
 129
 130 * Some tape drives which use a non-standard method of indicating
 131 end-of-tape now work correctly with multi-tape archives.
 132
 133 * --volno-file: Read the volume number used in prompting the user
 134 (but not in recording volume ID's on the archive) from a file.
 135
 136 * When using --multi-volume, you can now give multiple -f arguments;
 137 the various tape drives will get used in sequence and then wrap
 138 around to the beginning.
 139
 140 * Remote archive names no longer have to be in /dev: any file with a
 141 `:' is interpreted as remote.  If new option --force-local is given,
 142 then even archive files with a `:' are considered local.
 143
 144 * New option --atime-preserve restores (if possible) atimes to
 145 their original values after dumping the file.
 146
 147 * No longer does tar confusingly dump "." when you don't tell it
 148 what to dump.
 149
 150 * When extracting directories, tar now correctly restores their
 151 modification and access times.
 152
 153 * Longnames support is redone differently--long name info directly
 154 precedes the long-named file or link in the archive, so you no
 155 longer have to wait for the extract to hit the end of the tape for
 156 long names to work.
 157 \f
 158 Version 1.10 - Michael Bushnell, 1991-07.
 159
 160 * Filename to -G is optional.  -C works right.  Names +newer and
 161 +newer-mtime work right.
 162
 163 * -g is now +incremental, -G is now +listed-incremental.
 164
 165 * Sparse files now work correctly.
 166
 167 * +volume is now called +label.
 168
 169 * +exclude now takes a filename argument, and +exclude-from does
 170 what +exclude used to do.
 171
 172 * Exit status is now correct.
 173
 174 * +totals keeps track of total I/O and prints it when tar exits.
 175
 176 * When using +label with +extract, the label is now a regexp.
 177
 178 * New option +tape-length (-L) does multi-volume handling like BSD
 179 dump: you tell tar how big the tape is and it will prompt at that
 180 point instead of waiting for a write error.
 181
 182 * New backup scripts level-0 and level-1 which might be useful
 183 to people.  They use a file "backup-specs" for information, and
 184 shouldn't need local modification.  These are what we use to do
 185 all our backups at the FSF.
 186 \f
 187 Version 1.09 - Jay Fenlason, 1990-10.
 188 Version 1.08 - Jay Fenlason, 1990-01.
 189 Versions 1.07 back to 1.00 by Jay Fenlason.
 190
 191 * See ChangeLog for more details.