Look at http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual/html_node/file.html and the --force-local option.
Kamil On Saturday 14 of March 2009 08:43:54 Marcel (Felix) Giannelia wrote: > Hi, > > I understand why tar is complaining -- I know that when it sees colons > in a filename it's expecting it to be in host:/file/name format -- but > the error message it gives when I forget to properly escape colons in > local filenames is frightening: > > $ tar -tf 2009-03-09T01\:30\:03-07\:00.rdiff-backup-increment.tar > tar: 2009-03-09T01\:30\:03-07\:00.rdiff-backup-increment.tar: Cannot > open: Input/output error > tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now > > Of course, after a few seconds I realize my error and am relieved to > know that that didn't come from my hard drive or filesystem, but I think > that the error message should read "Cannot open: host 2009-03-09T01 not > found" -- that way, no one need go through any momentary terror when > this happens :) > > Perhaps the error could even read "Cannot open: host 2009-03-09T01 not > found (prefix with './' for a local filename with colons)"? > > ~Felix.
