Re: [Bug-tar] Possible Bug?

[Helmut Waitzmann]

"Enric Hernandez" <address@hidden> writes:

>I'm using GNU tar version 1.20 for executing incremental backups.
>
>I don't dare to flag it as a bug but I'm a little bit confused with the
>following use case so that any help will be very appreciated.
>
>I have the following hierarchy:
>
>dir_1
>       dir_1_1
>               file_1_1.txt
>
>
>First, I perform a backup:
>
>tar -cpvzf  tarfile -g snapshot_1
>
>then I change the name of directory "dir_1" to "dir_1_new", and I perform a
>new incremental backup.
>
>The problem appears when restoring. The first backup is restored ok, but
>when restoring the second, tar cannot rename the directory "dir_1" because
>it's not empty.

Does tar really try to rename "dir_1" to "dir_1_new".  I think, renaming
"dir_1" to "dir_1_new" should be possible, as long as "dir_1" and
"dir_1/.." are writable and "dir_1/.." has not set the sticky bit.

I guess, tar tries to remove "dir_1", which fails, because it's not
empty.

>And if so, is there any way to "force" tar to rename also not empty
>directories (some tar option or whatever)?

There is a dangerous option: '--recursive-unlink'.  But read the manual.
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