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revision 1.14 by eggert, Sat Jul 5 21:06:10 2003 UTC revision 1.15 by gray, Sun Jul 27 11:59:30 2003 UTC
# Line 11  Suggestions for improving GNU tar. Line 11  Suggestions for improving GNU tar.
11    This would unify paxutils with tar.    This would unify paxutils with tar.
12    
13  * Remove command-line incompatibilities between GNU tar and UNIX tar  * Remove command-line incompatibilities between GNU tar and UNIX tar
14    as specified by UNIX98.  The main problems are:    as specified by UNIX98.  The main problem is:
15    
16       l   GNU tar doesn't cross filesystem boundaries.       l   GNU tar doesn't cross filesystem boundaries.
17           UNIX98 tar warns if all links cannot be resolved.           UNIX98 tar warns if all links cannot be resolved.
18             (GNU tar has no similar option.)             (GNU tar --check-links option)
19    
20       o   GNU tar says output old format.    Perhaps we could announce a phase-in period where "l" changes in semantics.
21           UNIX98 tar says don't chown files after extracting    In the meanwhile we could make the "l" semantics to be determined by the
22             (GNU tar uses "--no-same-owner" for this).    value of POSIXLY_CORRECT variable.
   
   Many people rely on GNU tar's "l" and "o" so we can't abruptly change  
   GNU tar to be compatible with UNIX98 tar.  
   
   However, "o" is relatively easy: we can extend GNU tar so that "o" is  
   a synonym for --no-same-owner when extracting, keeping "o"'s current  
   semantics when creating.  This is a bit of a hack, but it shouldn't  
   break things.  
   
   "l" will be harder, since it's a clear incompatibility.  Perhaps we  
   could announce a phase-in period where "l" changes in semantics.  
   However, the first step should be to support the UNIX98 semantics,  
   using a long option, without changing the meaning of "l" for now.  That  
   will give people a migration strategy.  
23    
24  * Interoperate better with Joerg Schilling's star implementation.  * Interoperate better with Joerg Schilling's star implementation.
25    

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