Description of problem: Timestamps of embedded non-empty directories assume the times of tar extraction. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): Tar Version 1.28 in Fedora-22 How reproducible: Steps to Reproduce: tar -xpf archivefoo.tar.bz2 instead of tar --delay-directory-restore -xpf archivefoo.tar.bz2 when archivefoo.tar.bz2 was created from a directory containing files and directories where the directories also contain files and directories. Actual results: In the first case only the timestamp of the top directory will be preserved while the rest will assume the time of extraction Expected results: Timestamps of embedded non-empty directories should be preserved and will be if the --delay-directory-store option is used to override the default. Additional info:
100% Reproducible
Hi ernie, thanks for the report. (In reply to ernie_07 from comment #0) > Description of problem: > > Timestamps of embedded non-empty directories assume the times of tar > extraction. > > Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): > > Tar Version 1.28 in Fedora-22 > > How reproducible: > > Steps to Reproduce: > > tar -xpf archivefoo.tar.bz2 > > instead of > > tar --delay-directory-restore -xpf archivefoo.tar.bz2 > > when archivefoo.tar.bz2 was created from a directory containing files and > directories where the directories also contain files and directories. Note that '--delay-directory-restore' is quite expensive option which can not be turned on by default. To sum what it does: It caches metadata about *all* directories in the tarball until the end of extraction; then it does the metadata restore. This can be space/time expensive for very big tarballs. By default, only the metadata for directories that construct the path to currently extracted file are delayed (and stored in memory temporarily). This is usually sufficient for most tarballs around - and it is pretty easy to create such "cleaner" tarball. See the official GNU tar documentation regarding --delay-directory-restore: http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual/html_node/Directory-Modification-Times-and-Permissions.html I assume your tarball matches the first example in tar documentation ^^, this would mean this is WONTFIX/NOTABUG. Please reopen if you feel I'm wrong, Thanks, Pavel