Re: [Bug-tar] Bogus 'file changed as we read it'

[Paul Eggert]

Gerd Knops <address@hidden> writes:

> It is perfectly OK to make a hardlink while tar executes, but that
> changes the ctime and hence triggers the 'file changed as we read
> it' error message.

But a program could modify the file and then use utime() to set its
mtime back.  Tar won't catch this unless it also checks for ctime
changes.  True, tar will sometime report changes that are in fact
innocuous.  But that's the price of being conservative (and that sort
of thing can occur even if tar inspects only mtime).