Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!bcm!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!paul.rutgers.edu!njin!uupsi!sunic!dkuug!diku!seifert From: seifert@diku.dk (Michael Seifert) Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn Subject: Re: TAR & Disk Corruption. Message-ID: <1991Jun20.151139.999@odin.diku.dk> Date: 20 Jun 91 15:11:39 GMT References: Sender: seifert@freja.diku.dk Distribution: comp Organization: Department of Computer Science, U of Copenhagen Lines: 39 fl@tools.uucp (Frank Lancaster) writes: >tar will remind you if called with no parameters to READ THE DOCUMENTATION FILE >and THAT I WILL TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DATA LOSS DUE TO THE USE OF THIS >PROGRAMME. >I must say that I myself use tar on regular basis and I do not have any problems >anymore. The bug that could delete some or all of your hard disc was removed >ages ago. If you read the history section in the documentation you would have >realised this. >I released the tar programme into the public domain because I thought it a very >useful utility. But as people who have some kind of trouble using it or with >their hard disc always seem to see the fault in the programme I will now >stop supporting it. I am fed up! Some people would probably write to AT&T and >say that UNIX has a bug because if you rm -rf * it deletes all your files >without saying anything. It was a bad idea that tar was released with >submit/extract without the documentation, but I was preparing a release for >comp.binaries.acorn with some changes suggested by several users. This will >now not be done. You can buy a commercial backup programme and sue the >company if it doesn't work, I have a heavy work load (some people do have to >work for a living) and do not have the time to support a PD programme which >is supposed to satifies everyone's idea of ease of use and safety. >Frank Lancaster No need to be upset - nobody has accused you of anything. It is a fact that some (older?) versions of tar likes to garble hardiscs and archives, and I see no reason why you should reply in this tasteless manner. It is only fair that warnings are posted to this group, be they justified or not. Regards, Michael Seifert seifert@freja.diku.dk