[Bug 522856] Re: -h option does not do what is expected

[Daniel Manrique]

I think this is a matter of interpretation, and as far as I can see, as
it is now, tar's behavior is correct. One thing you could possibly do is
ask whether this is intended behavior in gnu tar's mailing list:

http://www.gnu.org/s/tar/#TOCmaillists

I'm afraid that, if you've never seen the behavior you describe, it's
probably because the way it's implemented is the "intended" way, and
since a lot of gnu tar users depend on the -h option behaving as it does
now, in any case changing it would be next to impossible.

I'm inclined to set this bug to "invalid" as the behavior as implemented
seems to be "by design" and correct by most other accounts. I'll wait to
hear your thoughts on this before committing to any course of action.

Thanks!

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/522856

Title:
  -h option does not do what is expected

Status in “tar” package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: tar

  Executing tar -hxf <file.tar> should follow existing symlinks and
  write files to those destination paths. Instead, the behavior of tar
  -hxf <file.tar> and tar -xf <file.tar> is exactly the same -- it
  overwrites the symlink with the file.

  Example:
  $ echo "Testing" >testfile
  $ tar -cf test.tar testfile
  $ rm testfile
  $ ln -s testfile2 testfile

  This command should overwrite the symlink "testfile":
  $ tar -xf test.tar

  This command should create a new file named "testfile2", leaving the symlink "testfile" pointing at "testfile2":
  $ tar -hxf test.tar

  Instead, the latter command performs exactly as the former command
  does.

  ProblemType: Bug
  Architecture: amd64
  Date: Tue Feb 16 16:04:13 2010
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
  Package: tar 1.22-1
  ProcEnviron:
   SHELL=/bin/bash
   PATH=(custom, user)
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   LANGUAGE=
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-19.56-server
  SourcePackage: tar
  Uname: Linux 2.6.31-19-server x86_64

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