Re: [Bug-tar] Tar symlinks questions

[Sergey Poznyakoff]

yamu wasp <address@hidden> wrote:

> # This old version is the only one that won't clobber
> synlinks, e.g.:
> # someone moves /opt to /usr/opt and makes a symlink. 
> With newer
> # versions of tar, installing any new package will
> remove the /opt

The following script:

#! /bin/sh
mkdir dir
> dir/file1
> dir/file2
tar cf archive dir
rm -rf dir
mkdir directory
ln -sd directory dir
> directory/file3
tar xf archive
file dir
ls -l dir/

run with tar version 1.15.1 produces:

dir: symbolic link to directory
total 0
-rw-r--r--    1 gray     users           0 Mar  5 10:11 file1
-rw-r--r--    1 gray     users           0 Mar  5 10:11 file2
-rw-r--r--    1 gray     users           0 Mar  5 10:11 file3

So, I don't know what they mean.

> QUESTIONS:
> 1) Are the symlinks and/or other bugs fixed?

One of the purposes of any new release is to fix "other bugs". Please,
refer to NEWS file for the full list of these. 
 
> 2) Also, is there a way to use tar to only overwrite
> symlinks with other symlinks (not directories)?

No, currently there is not.

Regards,
Sergey