Re: prefer local files to network connections

[Karl Berry]

    Wait, does this mean 'tar -cf host:file ...' will overwrite the local 
    file 'host:file' only if that file already exists? That sounds confusing.

I was only thinking about reading (tf, xf). I agree it would be weird on
creation.

    suggesting to me that I should put 'export TAR_OPTIONS=--force-local' 
    into my .profile, much as I dislike having environment variables 

Exactly my feelings (x2) as well.

    One possible minor improvement would be to say that file names starting 
    with "/" or with "./" are never remote, 

I believe that's already the case (thankfully).
$ touch foo:bar
$ tar xf ./foo:bar
tar: This does not look like a tar archive ...


As for the --remote option idea ... certainly I'm all for making
force-local the default. As soon as possible :). I wonder how many
people actually use the hostname:path feature. Besides, I gather from
the code, the Amanda project. (Would be interesting to see if their code
actually relies on it.) --best, karl.