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 GNU Extensions to the Archive Format
 ====================================
 
      _(This message will disappear, once this node revised.)_
 
    The GNU format uses additional file types to describe new types of
 files in an archive.  These are listed below.
 
 'GNUTYPE_DUMPDIR'
 ''D''
      This represents a directory and a list of files created by the
      '--incremental' ('-G') option.  The 'size' field gives the total
      size of the associated list of files.  Each file name is preceded
      by either a 'Y' (the file should be in this archive) or an 'N'.
      (The file is a directory, or is not stored in the archive.)  Each
      file name is terminated by a null.  There is an additional null
      after the last file name.
 
 'GNUTYPE_MULTIVOL'
 ''M''
      This represents a file continued from another volume of a
      multi-volume archive created with the '--multi-volume' ('-M')
      option.  The original type of the file is not given here.  The
      'size' field gives the maximum size of this piece of the file
      (assuming the volume does not end before the file is written out).
      The 'offset' field gives the offset from the beginning of the file
      where this part of the file begins.  Thus 'size' plus 'offset'
      should equal the original size of the file.
 
 'GNUTYPE_SPARSE'
 ''S''
      This flag indicates that we are dealing with a sparse file.  Note
      that archiving a sparse file requires special operations to find
      holes in the file, which mark the positions of these holes, along
      with the number of bytes of data to be found after the hole.
 
 'GNUTYPE_VOLHDR'
 ''V''
      This file type is used to mark the volume header that was given
      with the '--label=ARCHIVE-LABEL' ('-V ARCHIVE-LABEL') option when
      the archive was created.  The 'name' field contains the 'name'
      given after the '--label=ARCHIVE-LABEL' ('-V ARCHIVE-LABEL')
      option.  The 'size' field is zero.  Only the first file in each
      volume of an archive should have this type.
 
    You may have trouble reading a GNU format archive on a non-GNU system
 if the options '--incremental' ('-G'), '--multi-volume' ('-M'),
 '--sparse' ('-S'), or '--label=ARCHIVE-LABEL' ('-V ARCHIVE-LABEL') were
 used when writing the archive.  In general, if 'tar' does not use the
 GNU-added fields of the header, other versions of 'tar' should be able
 to read the archive.  Otherwise, the 'tar' program will give an error,
 the most likely one being a checksum error.
 

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