[Bug-tar] tar --remove-files bug when doing -r (append) in tar 1.23

[Jeremy Warren]

Originally posted to cygwin list, now I suspect the problem lies in
all 1.23 releases of tar.  I've reproduced this issue on Linux as well
now.

I have duplicated the following behavior on:

CYGWIN_NT-5.2 1.7.6(0.230/5/3) 2010-08-16 16:06 i686  (Windows 2003 R2 Server)
CYGWIN_NT-5.1 1.7.5(0.225/5/3) 2010-04-12 19:07 i686  (Windows XP Desktop)
Linux 2.6.18-164.9.1.el5.centos.plus #1 SMP Wed Dec 16 11:29:37 EST
2009 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

tar version 1.23 issue is 100% reproducible in my environment.

*Some editing has been made to the output to protect the innocent.
Any discrepancies in the output are unlikely related to the problem
itself and more likely caused by my sausage shaped fingers.

Scenario:
Given a directory with sample contents:
$ ls
file1.asc  file2.asc  file3.asc  file4.asc

the following command:
$ tar --remove-files -cvf test.tar *.asc
file1.asc
file2.asc
file3.asc
file4.asc

Produces the expected result of a single test.tar, with the 4 asc files removed.

$ ls
test.tar

And the tarball correctly contains all 4 files.

$ tar -tvf test.tar
-rw-r--r-- XXXXXXXXXXXXXX/None 22 2010-08-26 00:07 file1.asc
-rw-r--r-- XXXXXXXXXXXXXX/None 22 2010-08-26 00:07 file2.asc
-rw-r--r-- XXXXXXXXXXXXXX/None 22 2010-08-26 00:07 file3.asc
-rw-r--r-- XXXXXXXXXXXXXX/None 22 2010-08-26 00:07 file4.asc


*** PROBLEM STARTS HERE ***

The following command, using the -r (append -vs- create) switch,
correctly produces a test.tar file with all 4 files but fails to
delete the files.
$ tar --remove-files -rvf test.tar *.asc
file1.asc
file2.asc
file3.asc
file4.asc

$ ls
file1.asc  file2.asc  file3.asc  file4.asc  test.tar

$ tar -tvf test.tar
-rw-r--r-- XXXXXXXXXXXXXX/None 22 2010-08-26 00:11 file1.asc
-rw-r--r-- XXXXXXXXXXXXXX/None 22 2010-08-26 00:11 file2.asc
-rw-r--r-- XXXXXXXXXXXXXX/None 22 2010-08-26 00:11 file3.asc
-rw-r--r-- XXXXXXXXXXXXXX/None 22 2010-08-26 00:11 file4.asc

A return code of zero is produced in either instance, and the tarballs
created are both fully usable.

There is also a second scenario where all asc files are deleted except
the last one (so test.tar and file4 would be left in the directory at
completion) but as of yet I cannot reproduce that scenario at will, so
I'm uncertain as to the exact startup conditions that cause it.

In my situation using -c is not a solution since this command is
embedded within a large loop.   Each file is being processed and
appended to the archive one at a time.  The processing script worked
without issue prior to upgrading to the 1.23-1 version tar within the
last week or so.

It appears from the release notes that some changes were made in 1.23
related to the --remove-files argument
"** The --remove-files option removes files only if they were
succesfully stored in the archive."

I was unable to find any related issues in the archive but was having
trouble making the archive search match the '--remove-files' switch in
the query.  Apologies in advance if I duped.

Thanks,
Jeremy