Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!uunet!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!pooh!madler From: madler@pooh.caltech.edu (Mark Adler) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: FAQ -- Question #1(Next public domain software). Message-ID: <1991Jan16.202825.14136@nntp-server.caltech.edu> Date: 16 Jan 91 20:28:25 GMT References: <1991Jan16.034038.14804@nntp-server.caltech.edu> <1991Jan16.183611.1236@csn.org!datran2> <1991Jan16.192825.1412@csn.org!datran2> Sender: news@nntp-server.caltech.edu Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena Lines: 11 Nntp-Posting-Host: pooh.caltech.edu In article <1991Jan16.192825.1412@csn.org!datran2> smb@csn.org!datran2 writes: >by who knows what system. If I don't use the "o" option to extract, the >original owners and groups are sometimes preserved. The uid of the owner You must be using tar as a superuser. I almost never login as root, so I had not observed this behavior before. I suppose it makes good sense though if you're restoring a file system from a tar tape. As you point out, the man page fails to mention this effect of "o" when used with "x". Mark Adler madler@pooh.caltech.edu