Lenz Grimmer writes:

"tar --help" or "info tar" are also very helpful.

tar --help does provide concise, useful output. Thanks, Lenz! "info tar" is not so useful. I know it's not SuSE's fault; the tar developers seem to have a political problem with the classic man pages. But the "info" page for tar on SuSE 5.3 is no substitute for a real man page (how can you print out the whole thing, for example). Maybe it's all better on SuSE 6.3, but from the responses to my initial query, I doubt it. A consideration is that often the tar user in search of information is in the midst of a crisis, trying to restore a damaged system or complete an installation, and the last thing they want is to confront a cryptic "info" system. Give the poor user a simple, single file to read with a pager like less. I've received some promising pointers; when I sort them out, maybe I'll post some tar info here and on my ftp site. Jim -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/