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(tar.info)Portable Names

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Portable Names
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   Use portable file and member names.  A name is portable if it
contains only ASCII letters and digits, `/', `.', `_', and `-'; it
cannot be empty, start with `-' or `//', or contain `/-'.  Avoid deep
directory nesting.  For portability to old Unix hosts, limit your file
name components to 14 characters or less.

   If you intend to have your `tar' archives to be read under MSDOS,
you should not rely on case distinction for file names, and you might
use the GNU `doschk' program for helping you further diagnosing illegal
MSDOS names, which are even more limited than System V's.