Hi, I've noticed that the --exclude-ignore option to tar behaves in a way I didn't expect. I've attached a script you can run in a clean temporary directory to demonstrate this. Here's what I see when I copy the script into an empty directory, cd into that directory, and run it:
--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
Before:
a:
b exclusions
a/b:
c
Tarball contents:
a/
a/exclusions
a/b/
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
My understanding is that the file specified by --exclude-ignore only
applies to the directory it's in, so I expected a result like the
following:
--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
Tarball contents:
a/
a/exclusions
a/b/
a/b/c
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
The behavior I expected seems to be in line with the manual, which says
the following ((tar) Option Summary):
--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
'--exclude-ignore=FILE'
Before dumping a directory, 'tar' checks if it contains FILE. If
so, exclusion patterns are read from this file. The patterns
affect only the directory itself. *Note exclude::.
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
However, that isn't the behavior I've observed. Instead, it looks like
tar has excluded c, even though the file specified by --exclude-ignore
should have only applied to directory a, not to its child directory b.
Is the behavior I've observed intended? Based on what the manual says,
I suspect it isn't.
--
Chris Marusich
problem.sh
Description: Bourne shell script
signature.asc
Description: PGP signature
