Dogcows Code - chaz/tar/blob - README

   1 This GNU tar 1.10.  Please send bug reports, etc., to
   2 bug-gnu-utils@prep.ai.mit.edu.
   3
   4 GNU tar is based heavily on John Gilmore's public domain tar, but with
   5 added features.  The manual is currently being written.  An old
   6 manual, surely riddled with errors, is in tar.texinfo.  Please don't
   7 send in bug reports about that manual.  In particular, the mechanism
   8 for doing incremental dumps has been significantly changed.
   9
  10 This distribution also includes rmt, the remote tape server (which
  11 must reside in /etc).  The mt program is in the GNU cpio distribution.
  12
  13 To compile tar (and rmt, if your system has the needed features) on
  14 Unix-like systems:
  15
  16 1.  Type `./configure'.  This shell script attempts to guess correct
  17 values for various system-dependent variables used during compilation,
  18 and creates the file `Makefile'.  This takes a couple of minutes.
  19
  20 If you want to compile in a different directory from the one
  21 containing the source code, `cd' to that directory and run `configure'
  22 with the option `--srcdir=DIR', where DIR is the directory that
  23 contains the source code.  The object files and executables will be
  24 put in the current directory.  This option only works with versions of
  25 `make' that support the VPATH variable.  `configure' ignores any other
  26 arguments you give it.
  27
  28 If your system requires unusual options for compilation or linking
  29 that `configure' doesn't know about, you can give `configure' initial
  30 values for variables by setting them in the environment; in
  31 Bourne-compatible shells, you can do that on the command line like
  32 this:
  33 $ CC='gcc -traditional' LIBS=-lposix ./configure
  34
  35 2.  If you want to change the directories where the programs will be
  36 installed, or the optimization options, edit `Makefile' and change
  37 those values.  If you have an unusual system that needs special
  38 compilation options that `configure' doesn't know about, and you
  39 didn't pass them in the environment when running `configure', you
  40 should add them to `Makefile' now.  Alternately, teach `configure' how
  41 to figure out that it is being run on a system where they are needed,
  42 and mail the diffs to the address listed at the top of this file so we
  43 can include them in the next release.
  44
  45 3.  Type `make'.
  46
  47 4.  If your system needs to link with -lPW to get alloca, but has
  48 rename in the C library (so RENAME_MISSING is not used), -lPW might give
  49 you an incorrect version of rename.  On HP-UX this manifests itself as
  50 an undefined data symbol called "Error" when linking tar.  If this
  51 happens, use `ar x' to extract alloca.o from libPW.a and `ar rc' to
  52 put it in a library liballoca.a, and put that in LIBS instead of -lPW.
  53 This problem does not occur when using gcc, which has alloca built in.
  54
  55 5.  If the programs compile successfully, type `make install' to
  56 install them.
  57
  58 6.  After you have installed the programs, you can remove the binaries
  59 from the source directory by typing `make mostlyclean'.  Type `make
  60 clean' if you also want to remove `Makefile', for instance if you
  61 are going to recompile tar next on another type of machine.
  62
  63 makefile.pc is a makefile for Turbo C 2.0 on MS-DOS.
  64
  65 Various people have been having problems using floppies on a NeXT.
  66 I've gotten conflicting reports about what should be done to solve the
  67 problems, and we have no way to test it ourselves.
  68
  69
  70 User-visible changes since 1.09:
  71
  72 Filename to -G is optional.  -C works right.
  73 Names newer and --newer-mtime work right.
  74
  75 -g is now --incremental
  76 -G is now --listed-incremental
  77
  78 Sparse files now work correctly.
  79
  80 --volume is now called --label.
  81
  82 --exclude now takes a filename argument, and --exclude-from does what
  83 --exclude used to do.
  84
  85 Exit status is now correct.
  86
  87 --totals keeps track of total I/O and prints it when tar exits.
  88
  89 When using --label with --extract, the label is now a regexp.
  90
  91 New option --tape-length (-L) does multi-volume handling like BSD dump:
  92 you tell tar how big the tape is and it will prompt at that point
  93 instead of waiting for a write error.
  94
  95 New backup scripts level-0 and level-1 which might be useful to
  96 people.  They use a file "backup-specs" for information, and shouldn't
  97 need local modification.  These are what we use to do all our backups
  98 at the FSF.