Package: tar Version: 1.18-1 Severity: minor Tags: patch
The tar manpage states that the default archive (if -f is not given) is '-'. This is only the case if $TAPE is not set. According to [1], some package build scripts have relied on the documented behavior, leading to build failures when TAPE is set. The attached patch correctly documents the current behavior. The patch furthermore adds mention of TAR_OPTIONS, since there is a brand-new ENVIRONMENT section for it. [1] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- System Information: Debian Release: lenny/sid APT prefers unstable APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental') Architecture: i386 (i686) Kernel: Linux 2.6.18-2-k7 (SMP w/1 CPU core) Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash Versions of packages tar depends on: ii libc6 2.6-5 GNU C Library: Shared libraries tar recommends no packages. -- no debconf information *** tar-manpage-envvars.patch diff -NrU3 tar-1.18-orig/debian/tar.1 tar-1.18/debian/tar.1 --- tar-1.18-orig/debian/tar.1 2007-08-28 08:44:59.000000000 -0400 +++ tar-1.18/debian/tar.1 2007-08-28 09:01:50.617601735 -0400 @@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ exclude files matching PATTERN .TP .B \-f, \-\-file [HOSTNAME:]F -use archive file or device F (default "\-", meaning stdin/stdout) +use archive file or device F (otherwise value of TAPE environment variable; if unset, "\-", meaning stdin/stdout) .TP .B \-F, \-\-info\-script F, \-\-new\-volume\-script F run script at end of each tape (implies \-M) @@ -312,6 +312,18 @@ .TP .B \-[0\-7][lmh] specify drive and density +.SH ENVIRONMENT +The behavior of tar is controlled by the following environment variables, +among others: +.TP +.B TAPE +Device or file to use for the archive if \fB--file\fR is not specified. +If this environment variable is unset, use stdin or stdout instead. +.TP +.B TAR_OPTIONS +Options to prepend to those specified on the command line, separated by +whitespace. Embedded backslashes may be used to escape whitespace or +backslashes within an option. .SH BUGS .LP The GNU folks, in general, abhor man pages, and create info documents instead.
tar-manpage-envvars.patch.gz
Description: GNU Zip compressed data
