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.
+* Introduction
- This file is part of GNU tar.
+Please glance through *all* sections of this
+'README' file before starting configuration. Also make sure you read files
+'ABOUT-NLS' and 'INSTALL' if you are not familiar with them already.
- 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.
+If you got the 'tar' distribution in 'shar' format, time stamps ought to be
+properly restored; do not ignore such complaints at 'unshar' time.
- 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.
+GNU 'tar' saves many files together into a single tape or disk
+archive, and can restore individual files from the archive. It includes
+multivolume support, the ability to archive sparse files, automatic archive
+compression/decompression, remote archives and special features that allow
+'tar' to be used for incremental and full backups. This distribution
+also includes 'rmt', the remote tape server. The 'mt' tape drive control
+program is in the GNU 'cpio' distribution.
- 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.
+GNU 'tar' is derived from John Gilmore's public domain 'tar'.
+See file 'ABOUT-NLS' for how to customize this program to your language.
+See file 'COPYING' for copying conditions.
+See file 'INSTALL' for compilation and installation instructions.
+See file 'NEWS' for a list of major changes in the current release.
+See file 'THANKS' for a list of contributors.
-Please glance through *all* sections of this
-`README' file before starting configuration. Also make sure you read files
-`ABOUT-NLS' and `INSTALL' if you are not familiar with them already.
+Besides those configure options documented in files 'INSTALL' and
+'ABOUT-NLS', an extra option may be accepted after './configure':
-If you got the `tar' distribution in `shar' format, time stamps ought to be
-properly restored; do not ignore such complaints at `unshar' time.
+* Install
-GNU `tar' saves many files together into a single tape or disk
-archive, and can restore individual files from the archive. It includes
-multivolume support, the ability to archive sparse files, automatic archive
-compression/decompression, remote archives and special features that allow
-`tar' to be used for incremental and full backups. This distribution
-also includes `rmt', the remote tape server. The `mt' tape drive control
-program is in the GNU `cpio' distribution.
+** Selecting the default archive format.
-GNU `tar' is derived from John Gilmore's public domain `tar'.
+The default archive format is GNU, this can be overridden by
+presetting DEFAULT_ARCHIVE_FORMAT while configuring. The allowed
+values are GNU, V7, OLDGNU, USTAR and POSIX.
-See file `ABOUT-NLS' for how to customize this program to your language.
-See file `COPYING' for copying conditions.
-See file `INSTALL' for compilation and installation instructions.
-See file `PORTS' for various ports of GNU tar to non-Unix systems.
-See file `NEWS' for a list of major changes in the current release.
-See file `THANKS' for a list of contributors.
+** Selecting the default archive device
-Besides those configure options documented in files `INSTALL' and
-`ABOUT-NLS', an extra option may be accepted after `./configure':
+The default archive device is now 'stdin' on read and 'stdout' on write.
+The installer can still override this by presetting 'DEFAULT_ARCHIVE'
+in the environment before configuring (the behavior of '-[0-7]' or
+'-[0-7]lmh' options in 'tar' are then derived automatically). Similarly,
+'DEFAULT_BLOCKING' can be preset to something else than 20.
-* `--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.
+** Selecting full pathname of the "rmt" binary.
-The default archive device is now `stdin' on read and `stdout' on write.
-The installer can still override this by presetting `DEFAULT_ARCHIVE'
-in the environment before configuring (the behavior of `-[0-7]' or
-`-[0-7]lmh' options in `tar' are then derived automatically). Similarly,
-`DEFAULT_BLOCKING' can be preset to something else than 20.
+Previous versions of tar always looked for "rmt" binary in the
+directory "/etc/rmt". However, the "rmt" program included
+in the distribution was installed under "$prefix/libexec/rmt".
+To fix this discrepancy, tar now looks for "$prefix/libexec/rmt".
+If you do not want this behavior, specify full path name of
+"rmt" binary using DEFAULT_RMT_DIR variable, e.g.:
-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/.
+./configure DEFAULT_RMT_DIR=/etc
-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.
+If you already have a copy of "rmt" installed and wish to use it
+instead of the version supplied with the distribution, use --with-rmt
+option:
-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>.
+./configure --with-rmt=/etc/rmt
+This will also disable building the included version of rmt.
-Installation hints
-------------------
+** Installing backup scripts.
-Here are a few hints which might help installing `tar' on some systems.
+This version of tar is shipped with the shell scripts for producing
+incremental backups (dumps) and restoring filesystems from them.
+The name of the backup script is "backup". The name of the
+restore script is "restore". They are installed in "$prefix/sbin"
+directory.
-* gzip and bzip2.
+Use option --enable-backup-scripts to compile and install these
+scripts.
+
+** '--disable-largefile' omits support for large files, even if the
+operating system supports large files. Typically, large files are
+those larger than 2 GB on a 32-bit host.
+
+* Installation hints
+
+Here are a few hints which might help installing 'tar' on some systems.
+
+** 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
in gzip test version 1.3, which as of this writing is available at
<ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/gzip/>. You can work around the
incompatibility by using a shell command like
- `gzip -d <file.tar.gz | tar -xzf -'.
+ '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
+Some platform will, by default, prepare a smaller 'tar' executable
+which depends on shared libraries. Since GNU 'tar' may be used for
system-level backups and disaster recovery, installers might prefer to
-force static linking, making a bigger `tar' executable maybe, but able to
+force static linking, making a bigger 'tar' executable maybe, but able to
work standalone, in situations where shared libraries are not available.
The way to achieve static linking varies between systems. Set LDFLAGS
-to a value from the table below, before configuration (see `INSTALL').
+to a value from the table below, before configuration (see 'INSTALL').
Platform Compiler LDFLAGS
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
+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).
+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
+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
+About *security*, it is probable that future releases of 'tar' will have
some behavior changed. There are many pending suggestions to choose from.
-Today, extracting an archive not being `root', `tar' will restore suid/sgid
-bits on files but owned by the extracting user. `root' automatically gets
-a lot of special privileges, `-p' might later become required to get them.
+Today, extracting an archive not being 'root', 'tar' will restore suid/sgid
+bits on files but owned by the extracting user. 'root' automatically gets
+a lot of special privileges, '-p' might later become required to get them.
-GNU `tar' does not properly restore symlink attributes. Various systems
+GNU 'tar' does not properly restore symlink attributes. Various systems
implement flavors of symbolic links showing different behavior and
properties. We did not successfully sorted all these out yet. Currently,
-the `lchown' call will be used if available, but that's all.
+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.
+GNU tar will be merged into GNU paxutils: a project containing
+several utilities related to creating and handling archives in
+various formats. The project will include tar, cpio and pax
+utilities.
+
+* 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 1990-1992, 1994, 1997-2001, 2003-2004, 2007, 2012-2014 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 3 of the License, 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 this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+NOTE ON COPYRIGHT YEARS
+
+In copyright notices where the copyright holder is the Free Software
+Foundation, then where a range of years appears, this is an inclusive
+range that applies to every year in the range. For example: 2005-2008
+represents the years 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008.
+\f
+Local Variables:
+mode: outline
+paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
+version-control: never
+End:
projects / chaz / tar / blobdiff