Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!dftsrv!palantir!schuler
From: schuler@palantir.gsfc.nasa.gov (Larry Schuler - RMS)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.aux
Subject: Problems with tar
Message-ID: <1989Sep21.135339.26669@palantir.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Date: 21 Sep 89 13:53:39 GMT
Reply-To: schuler@palantir.gsfc.nasa.gov (Larry Schuler - RMS)
Organization: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center  Greenbelt,  MD
Lines: 24


I am trying to create a tar tape on an SC40 tape drive using the following
syntax,
	tar cvbBf 16 72000 /dev/rmt/tc1 mydir

The tape is starting ok, but when it hits a directory that contains
many symbolic links, tar core dumps with a segmentation fault.

The problem appears to be with the symbolic links, or number and combination
thereof; because, if I create a directory with approx 25 files and 25
symbolic links to those files (note: the symbolic link names all begin 
wityh caps, does this mean anything?), tar behaves very strangley when 
making a tar file. If I just do a "tar cvf - * >/dev/null" of the 
directory, it will save all the symbolic links, but will print an "error,
cannot open <file>" when it tries to read the regular files.

What is going on here ? Does anyone have any ideas, or is this a known
"feature"?

 
-- 
-Larry                                    "Fair is fair, Larry. ...
                                      We're out of food, we drew straws -
schuler@palantir.gsfc.nasa.gov                     -  you lost."  - G. Larson