The change in meaning of the --exclude option happenned more than thirty years ago. Mentioning it is no longer helpful.
Also, improve some wordings. --- doc/tar.texi | 26 ++++++++------------------ 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 18 deletions(-) diff --git a/doc/tar.texi b/doc/tar.texi index ddbf8cba..de414098 100644 --- a/doc/tar.texi +++ b/doc/tar.texi @@ -8350,7 +8350,7 @@ pitfalls: @itemize @bullet @item The main operating mode of @command{tar} does not act on a file name -explicitly listed on the command line, if one of its file name +explicitly listed on the command line if one of its file name components is excluded. In the example above, if you create an archive and exclude files that end with @samp{*.o}, but explicitly name the file @samp{dir.o/foo} after all the options have been @@ -8392,16 +8392,6 @@ syntax, when using exclude options in @command{tar}. If you try to use @code{regexp} syntax to describe files to be excluded, your command might fail. -@item -@FIXME{The change in semantics must have occurred before 1.11, -so I doubt if it is worth mentioning at all. Anyway, should at -least specify in which version the semantics changed.} -In earlier versions of @command{tar}, what is now the -@option{--exclude-from} option was called @option{--exclude} instead. -Now, @option{--exclude} applies to patterns listed on the command -line and @option{--exclude-from} applies to patterns listed in a -file. - @end itemize @node wildcards @@ -8442,11 +8432,11 @@ the characters @samp{-} and @samp{]} must either come @emph{first} or @cindex Character class, excluding characters from If the first character of the class after the opening @samp{[} is @samp{!} or @samp{^}, then the meaning of the class is reversed. -Rather than listing character to match, it lists those characters which +Rather than listing characters to match, it lists those characters which are @emph{forbidden} as the next single character of the matched string. Other characters of the class stand for themselves. The special -construction @samp{[@var{a}-@var{e}]}, using an hyphen between two +construction @samp{[@var{a}-@var{e}]}, using a hyphen between two letters, is meant to represent all characters between @var{a} and @var{e}, inclusive. @@ -8527,9 +8517,9 @@ b.c Notice quoting of the pattern to prevent the shell from interpreting it. -The effect of @option{--wildcards} option is canceled by +The effect of the @option{--wildcards} option is canceled by @option{--no-wildcards}. This can be used to pass part of -the command line arguments verbatim and other part as globbing +the command-line arguments verbatim and another part as globbing patterns. For example, the following invocation: @smallexample @@ -8570,21 +8560,21 @@ ignores case when excluding @samp{makefile}, but not when excluding If anchored, a pattern must match an initial subsequence of the name's components. Otherwise, the pattern can match any subsequence. Default is @option{--no-anchored} for exclusion members -and @option{--anchored} inclusion members. +and @option{--anchored} for inclusion members. @anchor{case-insensitive matches} @opindex ignore-case @opindex no-ignore-case @item --ignore-case @itemx --no-ignore-case -When ignoring case, upper-case patterns match lower-case names and vice versa. +When ignoring case, upper-case patterns match also lower-case names and vice versa. When not ignoring case (the default), matching is case-sensitive. @opindex wildcards-match-slash @opindex no-wildcards-match-slash @item --wildcards-match-slash @itemx --no-wildcards-match-slash -When wildcards match slash (the default for exclusion members), a +When wildcards match a slash (the default for exclusion members), a wildcard like @samp{*} in the pattern can match a @samp{/} in the name. Otherwise, @samp{/} is matched only by @samp{/}. -- 2.42.1