Have the build & NEWS files warn that the --format value is changing. This has been documented in the manual for almost 20 years, but not everyone reads the manual.
* NEWS: Update * README: Document DEFAULT_ARCHIVE_FORMAT will be changing. * configure.ac: Add warning if DEFAULT_ARCHIVE_FORMAT is not set. --- NEWS | 5 +++++ README | 6 +++--- configure.ac | 5 +++++ 3 files changed, 13 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS index 6ad1c377e4b0..84a6aea2ea76 100644 --- a/NEWS +++ b/NEWS @@ -1,6 +1,11 @@ GNU tar NEWS - User visible changes. 2021-02-13 Please send GNU tar bug reports to <bug-tar@gnu.org> +version 1.35 + +* Add notice about the default format changing to POSIX. This has been + documented in the manual for the last 19 years. + version 1.34 - Sergey Poznyakoff, 2021-02-13 * Fix extraction over pipe (savannah bug #60002) diff --git a/README b/README index b071c61cbcc7..86bec6c21f22 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -33,9 +33,9 @@ Besides those configure options documented in files 'INSTALL' and ** Selecting the default archive format. -The default archive format is GNU, this can be overridden by -presetting DEFAULT_ARCHIVE_FORMAT while configuring. The allowed -values are GNU, V7, OLDGNU, USTAR and POSIX. +The default archive format is GNU, but will be changing in the next release. +It can be overridden by presetting DEFAULT_ARCHIVE_FORMAT while configuring. +The allowed values are GNU, V7, OLDGNU, USTAR and POSIX. ** Selecting the default archive device diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac index 0d31d1eeaf1a..dc45a7072207 100644 --- a/configure.ac +++ b/configure.ac @@ -283,8 +283,10 @@ AC_MSG_CHECKING(for default archive format) AC_ARG_VAR([DEFAULT_ARCHIVE_FORMAT], [Set the default archive format. Allowed values are: V7, OLDGNU, USTAR, POSIX, GNU. Default is GNU]) +configure_default_archive_format_selected=false if test -z "$DEFAULT_ARCHIVE_FORMAT"; then DEFAULT_ARCHIVE_FORMAT="GNU" + configure_default_archive_format_selected=true fi case $DEFAULT_ARCHIVE_FORMAT in V7|OLDGNU|USTAR|POSIX|GNU) ;; @@ -293,6 +295,9 @@ esac AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(DEFAULT_ARCHIVE_FORMAT, ${DEFAULT_ARCHIVE_FORMAT}_FORMAT, [By default produce archives of this format]) AC_MSG_RESULT($DEFAULT_ARCHIVE_FORMAT) +if $configure_default_archive_format_selected; then + AC_MSG_WARN([The default format is changing to POSIX in a future release; see the README file for details]) +fi AC_MSG_CHECKING(for default archive) -- 2.33.0