Re: [Bug-tar] Possible tar bug

[Paul Eggert]

On 12/31/2010 05:28 AM, Joerg Schilling wrote:
> It seems that one of the most important resons for such problems is the fact 
> that GNU tar does not check for the archive format in existing archives.

It does check in some cases, and not in others, depending on the
circumstances.  Things get tricky because a single tar file can
have different formats for different members.

> A clean way to make backups is to
> append integral incremental dumps after a new filemark on the tape.

Yes, that makes more sense than trying to use '-rM'.  But we have
a user who really wants to do '-rM' and apparently there's some bug
in there somewhere.