Description of problem: the commands man tar tar --help don't show the option "--no-overwrite-dir" but it is implememted into the command... Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): 1.15.1-30.el5 How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. run "man tar" or "tar --help" 2. search for --no-overwrite-dir and you don't find it 3. run the command tar -xv --no-overwrite-dir -f test.tar Actual results: The command will succeed Expected results: Failure of command or update of man and --help option Additional info: In Fedora 14 tar-1.23-8.fc14.x86_64 man page and --help optioos present the "--no-overwrite" parameter
Thanks for report, it is not true that the option is not documented in RHEL-5 - it is documented in info documentation and I can see that option in tar --help as well ( tar --help | grep no-overwrite --no-overwrite-dir preserve metadata of existing directories ). Man page is not maintained/generated by upstream and it was written previous Red Hat tar maintainers - so it seems they forgot to add the option to manpage - in Fedora/RHEL-6 I regenerated/extended manpage, so this (and some other options) are documented.
Created attachment 510474 [details] Patch adding the option into tar RHEL-5 manpage
ok, thanks. Indeed I wrote "manpage" in subject, not "documentation" ;-) And indeed you were right: "tar --help" gives the line for --no-overwrite-dir, also for tar-1.15.1-30.el5 version
Technical note added. If any revisions are required, please edit the "Technical Notes" field accordingly. All revisions will be proofread by the Engineering Content Services team. New Contents: Prior to this update, the option "--no-overwrite-dir" was not documented in the tar(1) manual page. This problem has been corrected so that the option is now properly documented.
Since the problem described in this bug report should be resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For information on the advisory, and where to find the updated files, follow the link below. If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report. http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2011-1449.html