Re: Cannot get immutable to work

[Paul Eggert]

On 6/8/22 20:31, mg wrote:
> # Note: There is a typo in the online HTML manual; missing f after -c

Thanks for reporting that. I fixed it by installing the attached patch.

> mkdir t &&
>      cd t &&
>      echo foo > bar &&
>      sudo chattr +i bar &&
>      echo Can make bar immutable &&
>      lsattr &&
>      # sudo tar cf j.tar --xattrs --xattrs-include=user.* bar &&
>      sudo tar --xattrs -cf j.tar bar &&
>      mkdir t1 &&
>      cd t1 &&
>      echo "Cannot restore. Try 4 ways." &&
>      sudo tar xf ../j.tar --xattrs --xattrs-include=user.* &&
>      lsattr &&
>      sudo tar xf ../j.tar --xattrs-include=user.* &&
>      lsattr &&
>      sudo tar xf ../j.tar --xattrs &&
>      lsattr &&
>      sudo tar xf ../j.tar &&
>      lsattr

I don't have easy access to a file system that supports attributes, so 
the above is a bit cryptic to me. Perhaps you can help by running this 
command:

   sudo env LC_ALL=C strace -o /tmp/tar.trace tar xf ../j.tar --xattrs

and seeing which system calls fail in the trace. If it's not too large, 
please gzip -9 /tmp/tar.trace and email it as an attachment.

> As a general comment, I will note that if I do backup (-c) and restore (-x), I 
> would expect there would be no differences. Why wouldn't you make that strategy 
> the default?

There is an argument for the current default: when you unpack a random 
tarball from someone you don't know, you don't get files with weird 
attributes. At this point it might be a bit late to change the default 
as people are most likely depending on it.

0001-Fix-doc-c-typo.patch
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