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(tar.info)posix compliance

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POSIX Compliance
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We make some of our recommendations throughout this book for one reason
in addition to what we think of as "good sense".  The main additional
reason for a recommendation is to be compliant with the POSIX
standards.  If you set the shell environment variable
`POSIXLY_CORRECT', GNU `tar' will force you to adhere to these
standards.  Therefore, if this variable is set and you violate one of
the POSIX standards in the way you phrase a command, for example, GNU
`tar' will not allow the command and will signal an error message.  You
would then have to reorder the options or rephrase the command to
comply with the POSIX standards.

   There is a chance in the future that, if you set this environment
variable, your archives will be forced to comply with POSIX standards,
also.  No GNU `tar' extensions will be allowed.