About:
GNU `tar' saves many files together into a single tape or disk archive, and can restore individual files from the archive. It includes multivolume support, the ability to archive sparse files, automatic archive compression/decompression, remote archives and special features that allow `tar' to be used for incremental and full backups. It also includes `rmt', the remote tape server (the `mt' tape drive control program is in GNU `cpio').

Release focus: Major feature enhancements

Changes:
Support for POSIX.1-2001 and ustar archive formats was added. A new --format option selects the output archive format. The default output format can be selected at configuration time by presetting the environment variable DEFAULT_ARCHIVE_FORMAT (allowed values are GNU, V7, OLDGNU, USTAR, and POSIX). A new --strip-path option cuts off a given number of path elements from the name of the files being extracted.

Author:
Free Software Foundation <bug |dash| tar |at| gnu |dot| org> [contact developer]

Rating:	reset 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
7.70/10.00 (6 votes)

Homepage:
http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/
Tar/GZ:
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/tar/tar-1.20.tar.gz
Tar/BZ2:
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/tar/tar-1.20.tar.bz2
Changelog:
http://savannah.gnu.org/[..]ar/NEWS?rev=HEAD&content-type=text/plain
CVS tree (cvsweb):
http://savannah.gnu.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/tar/tar/
Mailing list archive:
http://savannah.gnu.org/mail/?group=tar

Trove categories: [change]

[Development Status]		5 - Production/Stable
[Environment]		Console (Text Based)
[Intended Audience]		End Users/Desktop
[License]		OSI Approved :: GNU General Public License (GPL)
[Operating System]		POSIX
[Programming Language]		C
[Topic]		System :: Archiving :: Compression

Dependencies: [change]
No dependencies filed

 Branches

Branch	Version	Last release	License	URLs
Release	1.20	15-Apr-2008	GNU General Public License (GPL)
Development	1.13.25	15-Dec-2002	GNU General Public License (GPL)

 Releases

Version	Focus	Date
1.20	Minor feature enhancements	15-Apr-2008 17:42
1.18	Minor bugfixes	30-Jun-2007 10:17
1.17	Minor feature enhancements	08-Jun-2007 18:05
1.16.1	Minor security fixes	10-Dec-2006 19:35
1.16	Major feature enhancements	11-Nov-2006 12:53
1.15.1	Major bugfixes	22-Dec-2004 09:56
1.15	Major feature enhancements	22-Dec-2004 06:17
1.14	Major feature enhancements	30-May-2004 05:42
1.13	Minor bugfixes	27-Aug-2001 12:28

 Articles referencing this project

Debian: New tar packages fix several vulnerabilities by Patrick Lenz , in Security Mon, Dec 31st 2007 06:14 Red Hat: Updated tar package fixes a path traversal flaw by Patrick Lenz , in Security Sun, Aug 26th 2007 09:07 Red Hat: Updated tar packages fix a path traversal flaw by Patrick Lenz , in Security Sat, Dec 23rd 2006 02:18

Debian: New tar packages fix arbitrary file overwrite by Patrick Lenz , in Security Mon, Dec 4th 2006 12:51 Debian: New tar packages fix arbitrary code execution by Patrick Lenz , in Security Tue, Mar 7th 2006 08:48 Red Hat: Updated tar package fixes a buffer overflow bug by Patrick Lenz , in Security Wed, Mar 1st 2006 08:43

 Comments

[»] 1.13.25 stable?
by David Starks-Browning - Feb 8th 2003 08:20:19

Freshmeat shows the date 15-Dec-2002 for 1.13.25, but the last Changelog entry is 26-Sep-2001. Almost 1.5 years with no changes! Can 1.13.25 be considered "stable" and released as 1.14?

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[»] Re: 1.13.25 stable?
by Jörg Schilling - Jul 23rd 2003 11:50:26

1.13.25 still has known bugs that should be fixed before somebody will make a 1.14.

In order to create a 1.14 you would need a maintainer who works on GNU tar and who is accepted by RMS.

If you are looking for a mature tar implementation that is actively maintained you should have a look at star.

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[»] 1.13.x at alpha.gnu.org
by Tim - Aug 13th 1999 00:01:17

You need to go to the alpha.gnu.org to get the 1.13.x versions. Only the release versions are on ftp.gnu.org. For those of us who are not entirely familiar with the GNU fondations ways.

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[»] Bzip2 option removed
by Chris Pimlott - Jul 13th 1999 07:28:53

This is odd, looking through the Changlog I see they added an option to unbzip2 files after 1.12 but then took it out before release... any know why?

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[»] Re: Bzip2 option removed
by Chris Pimlott - Aug 21st 2002 16:39:42

This reply is way overdue, but ignore my original comment. bzip2 support was indeed taken out briefly but was put back shortly afterwards and has been a stardard part of tar even since.

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[»] Re: Bzip2 option removed
by Casey McGinty - Sep 11th 2002 00:53:00

If this is true how come it is not mentioned anywhere in the manual on the GNU page? The only way I can see to get this support in is by applying a patch to the code.


> This reply is way overdue, but ignore my
> original comment. bzip2 support was
> indeed taken out briefly but was put
> back shortly afterwards and has been a
> stardard part of tar even since.
>


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[»] Re: Bzip2 option removed
by Redhead - Jul 23rd 2003 17:51:20


> If this is true how come it is not
> mentioned anywhere in the manual on the
> GNU page? The only way I can see to get
> this support in is by applying a patch
> to the code.

~> tar --version | head -n1
tar (GNU tar) 1.13.25

~> tar --help | grep "\-j"
-j, --bzip2 filter the archive through bzip2

Seems to me like it's there.... No need for any patch of any kind.

--
"Don't worry Ma'am. We're university students, - we know what we're doing."

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