Re: [Bug-tar] 'tar --version' in 1.14.90

[Joerg Schilling]

Richard Karnesky <address@hidden> wrote:

> I noticed that the version string in the alpha release is 'tar (tar) 
> 1.14.90'.  Will this syntax be used for the next official release?
>
> The configure script for amanda[1] looks for '*GNU*tar*' when it checks to 
> see what version of tar is present & fails the test since 'GNU' isn't in 
> the string.  I have already notified the amanda developers, but thought 
> other projects might do something similar to check if the version of tar is 
> compatible with GNU tar.  Is there some other preferred method to check 
> this in addition to the version number?
>   [1]<http://www.amanda.org/>

Good point. Also look at this:

gnutar --version
gnutar: star 1.5a54 (i386-pc-solaris2.9)

Copyright (C) 1985, 88-90, 92-96, 98, 99, 2000-2004 Jörg Schilling
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

ls -l /opt/schily/bin/gnutar
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     other          8 Nov  2 21:46 /opt/schily/bin/gnutar -> 
star_fat

This is a GNU tar emulation based on star, so it makes sense to make sure that
other programs may distinguish GNU tar from other tar implementations.

Note that star of course does not implement GNU tar's incremental backup method
as this method is known not to work correctly. Star rather implements it's own 
incremental backup/restore method that works similar to what ufsdump/ufsrestore
do.

I thought that amanda uses a heavily patched version of gnu tar 1.12. Isn't this
amanda patch needed to make GNU tar's incrementals work? From my tests on GNU 
tar-1.14.90 I can say that incremental restores with a vanilla GNU tar do not 
even pass simple test cases. Could you comment this?

Jörg

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