My recollection matches what Bruce says (and I have been using unix since when version 7 was the latest and greatest). At least the SUN OS 5.6 man page I could locate online says this:
The o function modifier is only valid with the x function. p Restore the named files to their original modes, and ACLs if applicable, ignoring the present umask(1). This is the default behavior if invoked as super-user with the x function letter specified. If super-user, SETUID and sticky information are also extracted, and files are restored with their original owners and permissions, rather than owned by root. This superuser behavior is what allows one to use tar as an archiving program. To Unsubscribe: send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
