[Bug-tar] --compare gives error warnings when file does not exist

[Bdale Garbee]

One of the users of my Debian packaging of tar reports that --compare
returns an error message on stderr instead of the expected error
notification on stdout when a specified file does not exist.  

I have confirmed that the same behavior exists with tar 1.20.

The info documentation isn't entirely clear on whether the expected
behavior is a notification on stdout or an error on stderr, but the
example shown certainly looks more like what the bug reporter is
expecting than what he and I are seeing.

What's the intended behavior here?

Bdale

> --- Begin Message ---
>
>
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> Subject: 
>
> Bug#475879: tar --compare gives error warnings when file does not	exist 
>
>
>
>
> Date: 
>
> Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:35:19 +0200
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>
>
>
> User-agent: 
>
> Thunderbird 2.0.0.12 (X11/20080227)
>
>
>
>
> Package: tar
> Version: 1.16-2etch1
>
> I like to report what I believe is a bug in the current stable version
> of tar.
>
> I want to compare an old archive with the current file system. According
> to the documentation the --diff or --compare option should give for any
> none existing file:
> """
> file: does not exist
> """
> Instead I get
>
> address@hidden / $ tar --diff --file archive.tar
> tar: directory/xxx.jpg: Warning: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
>
> which is an error message, because if I pipe ordinary output to
> /dev/null I still get it:
> address@hidden / $ tar --diff --file archive.tar > /dev/null
> tar: directory/xxx.jpg: Warning: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
>
> I run Debian stable with a self made kernel:
> address@hidden / $ uname -a
> Linux server 2.6.18-6 #1 Sun Jan 20 22:38:09 CET 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
>
> and libc6:
> address@hidden / $ dpkg -s libc6 | grep ^Version
> Version: 2.3.6.ds1-13etch5
>
> With kind regards,
> Paul Gevers
>
>
>
> --- End Message ---