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 1.13.10 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-20.
   5
   6 * `tar' now uses signed base-64 when outputting header values that are
   7   out of the range of the standard unsigned base-8 format.  This
   8   affects archive members with negative timestamps or uids, and
   9   archive members 8 GB or larger.  The new tar archives cannot be read
  10   by traditional tar, or by older versions of GNU tar.  Use the
  11   --old-archive option to revert to the old behavior, which uses
  12   unportable representations for negative values, and which rejects
  13   large files.
  14
  15 version 1.13.9 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-18.
  16
  17 * `tar' now writes two zero blocks at end-of-archive instead of just one.
  18   POSIX.1 requires this, and some other `tar' implementations check for it.
  19
  20 * `tar' no longer silently accepts a block containing nonzero checksum bytes
  21   as a zero block.
  22
  23 * `tar' now reads buggy tar files that have a null byte at the start of a
  24   numeric header field.
  25
  26
  27 version 1.13.8 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-16.
  28
  29 * For compatibility with traditional `tar', intermediate directories
  30   created automatically by root are no longer given the uid and gid of
  31   the original file or directory.
  32
  33
  34 version 1.13.7 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-14.
  35
  36 * --listed-incremental and --newer are now incompatible options.
  37
  38 * When creating an archive, leading `./' is no longer stripped,
  39   to match traditional tar's behavior (and simplify the documentation).
  40
  41 * --diff without --absolute-names no longer falls back on absolute names.
  42
  43
  44 version 1.13.6 - Paul Eggert, 1999-08-11.
  45
  46 * An --exclude pattern containing / now excludes a file only if it matches an
  47   initial prefix of the file name; a pattern without / continues to
  48   exclude a file if it matches any file name compoment.
  49
  50 * The protocol for talking to rmt has been extended slightly.
  51   Open flags are now communicated in symbolic format as well as numeric.
  52   The symbolic format (e.g. "O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC" is for portability
  53   when rmt is operating on a different operating system from tar.
  54   The numeric format is retained, and rmt uses it if symbolic format is absent,
  55   for backward compatibility with older versions of tar and rmt.
  56
  57 * When writing GNU tar format headers, tar now uses signed base-64
  58   for values that cannot be represented in unsigned octal.
  59   This supports larger files (2**66 - 1 bytes instead of 2**33 - 1 bytes),
  60   larger uids, negative timestamps, etc.
  61
  62 * When extracting files with unknown ownership, tar now looks up the
  63   uid and gid "nobody" on hosts whose headers do not define UID_NOBODY
  64   and GID_NOBODY, and falls back on uid/gid -2 if there is no "nobody".
  65
  66 * tar -t --numeric-owner now prints numeric uids and gids, not symbolic.
  67
  68 * New option -y or --bzip2 for bzip2 compression, by popular request.
  69
  70
  71 version 1.13.5 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-20.
  72
  73 * Do the delayed updates of file metadata even after a fatal error.
  74
  75
  76 version 1.13.4 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-20.
  77
  78 * Do not chmod unless we are root or the -p option was given;
  79   this matches historical practice.
  80
  81
  82 version 1.13.3 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-16.
  83
  84 * A path name is excluded if any of its file name components matches an
  85   excluded pattern, even if the path name was specified on the command line.
  86   Also see 1.13.6 for later changes in this area.
  87
  88
  89 version 1.13.2 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-14.
  90
  91 * Bug reporting address changed to <bug-tar@gnu.org>.
  92
  93
  94 version 1.13.1 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-12.
  95
  96 * Bug fixes only.
  97 \f
  98 version 1.13 - Paul Eggert, 1999-07-08.
  99
 100 * Support for large files, e.g. files larger than 2 GB on many 32-bit hosts.
 101   Also, support for larger uids, device ids, etc.
 102 * Many bug fixes and porting fixes.
 103 * This release is only for fixes.  A more ambitious test release,
 104   with new features, is available as part of the paxutils.  Please see:
 105     http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/contrib/paxutils/
 106   The fixes in this release are intended to be merged with paxutils
 107   at some point, but they haven't been merged yet.
 108 * An interim GNU tar alpha had new --bzip2 and --ending-file options,
 109   but they have been removed to maintain compatibility with paxutils.
 110   Please try --use=bzip2 instead of --bzip2.
 111 \f
 112 Version 1.12 - François Pinard, 1997-04.
 113
 114 Sensitive matters
 115 * Use shell globbing patterns for --label, instead of regular expressions.
 116 * Do not quote anymore internally over the quoting done by the shell.
 117
 118 Output for humans
 119 * Offer internationalisation capabilities of most recent GNU gettext.
 120 * Messages available in many more languages, thanks to all translators!
 121 * Usage of ISO 8601 dates in listings, instead of local American dates.
 122 * More normalisation and cleanup in error messages.
 123
 124 Creation
 125 * For helping using tar with find, offer a --no-recursion option.
 126 * Implement --numeric-owner for ignoring symbolic names at create time.
 127 * New --owner, --group --mode options, still preliminary.
 128 * Recognise creating an archive on /dev/null, so Amanda works faster.
 129 * Object to the creation of an empty archive (like in `tar cf FILE').
 130 * Barely start implementing --posix and POSIXLY_CORRECT.
 131
 132 Extraction
 133 * Make a better job at restoring file and directory attributes.
 134 * Automatically attempt deleting existing files when in the way.
 135 * Option --unlink-first (-U) removes most files prior to extraction.
 136 * Option --recursive-unlink removes non-empty directories when in the way.
 137 * Option --numeric-owner ignores owner/group names, it uses UID/GID instead.
 138 * Use global umask when creating missing intermediate directories.
 139 * When symlinks are not available, extract symbolic links as hard links.
 140 * Diagnose extraction of contiguous files as regular files.
 141 * New --backup, --suffix and --version-control options.
 142
 143 Various changes
 144 * Better support of huge archives with --tape-length and --totals.
 145 * Rename option --read-full-blocks (-B) to --read-full-records (-B).
 146 * Rename option --block-size (-b) to --blocking-factor (-b).
 147 * Rename option --record-number (-R) to --block-number (-R).
 148 * With --block-number (-R), report null blocks and end of file.
 149 * Implement --record-size for introducing a size in bytes.
 150 * Delete --block-compress option and rather decide it automatically.
 151 * Rename option --modification-time to --touch.
 152
 153 Many bugs are squashed, while others still run free.
 154 \f
 155 Version 1.11.8 - François Pinard, 1995-06.
 156
 157 * Messages available in French, German, Portuguese and Swedish.
 158 * The distribution provides a rudimentary Texinfo manual.
 159 * The device defaults to stdin/stdout, unless overridden by the installer.
 160 * Option --sparse (-S) should work on more systems.
 161 * Option --rsh-command may select an alternative remote shell program.
 162
 163 Most changes are internal, and should yield better portability.
 164 \f
 165 Version 1.11.2 - Michael Bushnell, 1993-03.
 166
 167 * Changes in backup scripts: cleaned up considerably; notices error
 168 conditions better over rsh; DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT is now an option in
 169 backup-specs; new file dump-remind is an example of a
 170 DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT.
 171
 172 * Superfluous "Reading dirname" was a bug; fixed.
 173
 174 * Incompatibility problems with a bug on Solaris are fixed.
 175
 176 * New option --gzip (aliases are --ungzip and -z); calls gzip instead
 177 of compress.  Also, --use-compress-program lets you specify any
 178 compress program.  --compress-block is renamed --block-compress and
 179 now requires one of the three compression options to be specified.
 180
 181 * Several error messages are cleaned up.
 182
 183 * Directory owners are now set properly when running as root.
 184
 185 * Provide DUMP_REMIND_SCRIPT in backup-specs as a possible option
 186 for --info-script.
 187
 188 * Behave better with broken rmt servers.
 189
 190 * Dump scripts no longer use --atime-preserve; this causes a nasty probem.
 191
 192 * Several Makefile cleanups.
 193 \f
 194 Version 1.11.1 - Michael Bushnell, 1992-09.
 195
 196 * Many bug fixes.
 197 \f
 198 Version 1.11 - Michael Bushnell, 1992-09.
 199 Version 1.10.16 - 1992-07.
 200 Version 1.10.15 - 1992-06.
 201 Version 1.10.14 - 1992-05.
 202 Version 1.10.13 - 1992-01.
 203
 204 * Many bug fixes.
 205
 206 * Now uses GNU standard configure, generated by Autoconf.
 207
 208 * Long options now use `--'; use of `+' is deprecated and support
 209 for it will eventually be removed.
 210
 211 * New option --null causes filenames read by -T to be
 212 null-terminated, and causes -C to be ignored.
 213
 214 * New option --remove-files deletes files (but not directories)
 215 after they are added to the archive.
 216
 217 * New option --ignore-failed-read prevents read-errors from affecting
 218 the exit status.
 219
 220 * New option --checkpoint prints occasional messages as the tape
 221 is being read or written.
 222
 223 * New option --show-omitted-dirs prints the names of directories
 224 omitted from the archive.
 225
 226 * Some tape drives which use a non-standard method of indicating
 227 end-of-tape now work correctly with multi-tape archives.
 228
 229 * --volno-file: Read the volume number used in prompting the user
 230 (but not in recording volume ID's on the archive) from a file.
 231
 232 * When using --multi-volume, you can now give multiple -f arguments;
 233 the various tape drives will get used in sequence and then wrap
 234 around to the beginning.
 235
 236 * Remote archive names no longer have to be in /dev: any file with a
 237 `:' is interpreted as remote.  If new option --force-local is given,
 238 then even archive files with a `:' are considered local.
 239
 240 * New option --atime-preserve restores (if possible) atimes to
 241 their original values after dumping the file.
 242
 243 * No longer does tar confusingly dump "." when you don't tell it
 244 what to dump.
 245
 246 * When extracting directories, tar now correctly restores their
 247 modification and access times.
 248
 249 * Longnames support is redone differently--long name info directly
 250 precedes the long-named file or link in the archive, so you no
 251 longer have to wait for the extract to hit the end of the tape for
 252 long names to work.
 253 \f
 254 Version 1.10 - Michael Bushnell, 1991-07.
 255
 256 * Filename to -G is optional.  -C works right.  Names +newer and
 257 +newer-mtime work right.
 258
 259 * -g is now +incremental, -G is now +listed-incremental.
 260
 261 * Sparse files now work correctly.
 262
 263 * +volume is now called +label.
 264
 265 * +exclude now takes a filename argument, and +exclude-from does
 266 what +exclude used to do.
 267
 268 * Exit status is now correct.
 269
 270 * +totals keeps track of total I/O and prints it when tar exits.
 271
 272 * When using +label with +extract, the label is now a regexp.
 273
 274 * New option +tape-length (-L) does multi-volume handling like BSD
 275 dump: you tell tar how big the tape is and it will prompt at that
 276 point instead of waiting for a write error.
 277
 278 * New backup scripts level-0 and level-1 which might be useful
 279 to people.  They use a file "backup-specs" for information, and
 280 shouldn't need local modification.  These are what we use to do
 281 all our backups at the FSF.
 282 \f
 283 Version 1.09 - Jay Fenlason, 1990-10.
 284 Version 1.08 - Jay Fenlason, 1990-01.
 285 Versions 1.07 back to 1.00 by Jay Fenlason.
 286
 287 * See ChangeLog for more details.