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From: madler@pooh.caltech.edu (Mark Adler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: tar (was Re: FAQ ...)
Message-ID: <1991Jan17.024255.25613@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 17 Jan 91 02:42:55 GMT
References: <1991Jan16.192825.1412@csn.org!datran2> <1991Jan16.202825.14136@nntp-server.caltech.edu> <1991Jan16.221406.1979@csn.org!datran2>
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(I tried to send this directly, but the mail bounced.  Sorry to those bored
with the whole tar thing.)

In article <1991Jan16.221406.1979@csn.org!datran2> smb@csn.org!datran2 writes:
>In fact I have seen the behavior as a normal user.  One recent ftp tar
>archive that I extracted created a subdirectory owned by a uid not defined
>on my system and with no write permission for group or other.  tar then

Really?  How normal a user were you (what groups)?  How can tar do this?

It doesn't sound good--chown() should fail if you're not the superuser.

Mark Adler
madler@pooh.caltech.edu