People often tell me that star is hard to use, because it is so different from 
Gnu tar. In order to allow an unbiased discussion, I prepared this comparison. 
It contains some hints for people (currently using Gnu tar) who like to like to 
switch to 'star'. In addition, there is a list of features missing in Gnu tar
and a smaller list of features missing in star. A list of incompatible options
found in Gnu tar helps to find out which options from Gnu tar should be avoided.
As I am not sure whether I will have the time to keep it in sync with future 
changes, it is valid for May 2007.

First some background notes. Star is several years older than Gnu tar and most
of the options that have different meanings in gnu tar have been in use with
star since 1985. This is about two years before the first versions of Gnu tar
(called PD tar or SUG tar in 1987) have been published. Do not expect that the
meaning of those options will be changed in star in the future.

Star tries to be as compatible as possible with the BSD tar implementation
from 1982 and with the POSIX standard. Of course, it implements a lot of
enhancements. Gnu tar in former times (in 1987 when being called
PD tar / SUG tar) has been compatible to the BSD tar implementation but this
changed in 1989 when FSF adopted the program as Gnu tar. Gnu tar is not
very POSIX compliant. The command line options from Gnu tar do not follow
the SUSv2 (UNIX-98) and the archive format does not follow POSIX.1-1988.
Although these problems have been reported to the GNU tar maintainers 
in 1993 and 1994, nothing did happen for years. Since a few months, GNU tar
is able to create and read POSIX.1-1988 compliant tar archives if called
with a special option. By default, it still does not create POSIX compliant
archives by default.

If you know the standard and thus know where Gnu tar is not standard compliant,
it is easy to switch between Gnu tar and star. If you only use the basic
functionality, everything should be exactly the same. If you don't know the 
standard and only know Gnu tar you may get into some problems but this is
really a Gnu tar problem.

Now let us compare functionality and options. Star has a lot of functions
that are usually invisible to the user but make the daily use much easier:

-	A built in find(1) allows star to execute "find" like expressions
	in create, extract and list mode. This allows one to do a lot of
	interesting things that could not be done if star and find would
	be called separatedly 

-	A FIFO allows one to keeps the tape streaming. This gives you faster
	backups than you can achieve with other tar implementations. Star is 
	even at least 30% faster than ufsdump.

-	Fast remote tape support is built into star.

-	A powerful pattern matcher for a convenient user interface (see manual
	page for more details) to archive/extract a subset of files.

-	A sophisticated diff with a user tailorable interface for comparing
	tar archives against file trees. This is one of the most interesting parts
	of the star implementation.

-	No namelength limitation is built into star. Pathnames up to PATH_MAX
	may be archived. (The same limitation applies to linknames). This limit
	may be expanded in future without changing the method to record
	long names.

-	deals with all 3 times, it stores/restores all 3 times of a file
	(even creation time)
	On Solaris, it may reset access time after doing the backup without
	clobbering the ctime.

-	Star does not clobber files by default. More recent copies on disk will
	not be clobbered from tape. This may be the main advantage over other
	tar implementations; it allows automatically repairing of corruptions
	after a crash & fsck (Check for differences after doing this with the
	diff option).

-	Star does automatic byte swapping if needed. Star automatically detects
	swapped archives and transparently reads them the right way.

-	Star has automatic compression detection. In the recent case when star
	is used to unpack compressed files containing tar archives, star will
	transparently detect and call the right decompression program.

-	Star has automatic archive format detection. Star automatically detects
	several common archive formats and adopts to them. Supported archive
	types are:

		v7tar		Old UNIX V7 tar format
		tar		Old BSD tar format
		star		Old star format from 1985
		gnutar		GNU tar format 1989 (violates POSIX)
		ustar		Standard POSIX.1-1988 tar format
		xstar		Extended standard tar (star 1994)
		xustar		'xstar' format without tar signature
		exustar		'xustar' format - always x-header
		pax		Extended POSIX.1-2001 standard tar
		suntar		Sun's extended pre-POSIX.1-2001
		bin		cpio UNIX V7 binary format
		cpio		cpio POSIX.1-1988 format
		odc		cpio POSIX.1-1988 with SYSv compat
		asc		SYSvr4 cpio ascii expanded device #
		crc		'asc' format + CRC


-	Star is fully ANSI/Posix 1003.1 compatible. See README.otherbugs for a
	complete description of bugs found in other tar implementations.

-	Support for the new POSIX.1-2001 extended tar format. This new tar 
	format allows one to archive many new things in a standard compliant way.
	These things are currently are implemented in Gnu tar in a proprietary 
	way and have in former times been implemented in a proprietary way in 
	star. To give an example, the most interesting features that are now 
	handled in a standard compliant way are filenames without name len 
	limitation and file size without the old 8 GB tar limitation.
	An interesting aspect of the new extended header format is that the
	extended header format itself is extensible without limitation. Star
	uses this extension format to archive Access Control Lists and file
	flags from BSD-4.4 and Linux.

-	Star includes highly efficiend and 100% correct support for sparse
	files on Solaris-2.3...Solaris-2.5.1 and for Solaris 10 and newer.
	Star asks the OS for the locations of holes in files, this may be up
	to 1000 times faster than with trying to find zeroed blocks.

-	Star supports to put all inode metadata on the archive. This allows
	star to perform true incremental dumps.

-	Star includes support for multi level true incremental dump and 
	restore. GNU tar claims to support incrementals but first tests with
	the scenarios created for star did show that GNU tar does not handle
	renamed directories correctly. Also note that incremental dumps
	made with GNU tar need a lot more tape space than those made with
	star.

	The archive format used with incremental backups in star is more
	compact and more effective than the archive format used by Gnu tar.
	While Gnu tar needs to archive the complete directory tree, if 
	directory has been renamed, star will only archive empty renamed
	directories.

-	Sophisticated error control allows one to tell star which error types
	should be ignored for wich file name pattern. This allows one to write
	backup scripts that give no error messages for all problems that are
	tolerable (e.g. growing log files).

-	Star implements 'ed' like pattern substitutuions. Star supports
	automated pattern rule based file name substitution as documented 
	for 'pax'.

-	Fast built in -copy mode allows one to make fast and accurate copies and
	directory tree comparisons.


Comparing command line options from star and gnutar is a more complex task:

-	Star has 157 base Options

-	Gnu tar has 70 base Options

-	Star has    94 Options that are missing in Gnu tar

-	Gnu tar has 13 Options that are missing in star

	-	6 of the Gnu tar options are not needed or do not make sense to implement
	-	2 of the Gnu tar options are considered to be of low importance
	-	3 of the Gnu tar options are nice to have
	-	2 of the missing options are needed and important

Only one of the Gnu tar options may be knock off criteria: the
"ignore failed reads") but it may not work correctly in Gnu tar.

/*--------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
As a hint for readers to the star manual page, star uses getargs() to parse
the command line. Getargs() is much more flexible than getopt() and is even
older than getopt(). Getargs() implements the following features:

-	All single char boolean options and all single char increment type
	options may be combined into a single string starting with a single
	dash (-).

-	getargs() has a compatibility mode for GNU programs and allows one to
	preceede long options with a double dash (--) instead of the usual
	single dash (-).

-	All options that take an argument are listed in the man page for
	better readability of the manual as:
	
		option=arg

	but the following variants may appear in the actual command line:

		option=arg
		option= arg
		-option=arg
		-option= arg
		-optionarg
		-option arg

-	A separate double dash (--) may preceede any argument that looks like
	an option and specifies that the immediately following argument is
	a file type argument.

/*--------------------------------------------------------------------------*/

STAR Option	Description							Gnu tar equiv.	Remarks
===========	===========							=============	===================

Cmds:

-c/-u/-r	create/update/replace named files to tape			-c/-u/-r	identical
-x/-t		extract/list  named files from tape				-x/-t		identical
-n		trace named files from tape					--missing--
-copy		copy named files to destination directory			--missing--
-diff		diff archive against file system (see -xhelp)			--diff		Gnu --diff is not as useful
												as star's -diff

Options:

-help		print this help							--help		close to identical
-xhelp		print extended help						see above
-version									--version	close to identical
-debug										--missing--
-silent		no not print informational messages				--missing--
blocks=#,b=#	set blocking factor to #x512 Bytes (default 20)			-b		close to identical
file=nm,f=nm	use 'nm' as tape instead of stdin/stdout			-f		close to identical
-T		use $TAPE as tape instead of stdin/stdout			--missing--
-[0-7]		Select an alternative tape drive				-[0-7][lmh]	close to identical
-fifo/-no-fifo	use/don't use a fifo to optimize data flow from/to tape		--missing--
-shm		use SysV shared memory for fifo					--missing--
-v		be verbose							-v		identical
-block-number	print the block numbers where the TAR headers start		--block-number	Not working in Gnu tar!
-tpath		use with -t to list path names only				--missing--
H=header	generate 'header' type archive (see H=help)			--missing--
artype=header	generate 'header' type archive (see H=help)			    "
-print-artype	check and print archive and compression type on one line and exit. --missing--
C=dir		perform a chdir to 'dir' before storing next file		-C		identical
-bsdchdir	do BSD style C= (only related to the next file type arg)	--missing--
-find		Option separator: Use find command line to the right.		--missing--
-Z		pipe input/output through compress, does not work on tapes	
-z		pipe input/output through gzip, does not work on tapes		-z		identical
-bz,-j		pipe input/output through bzip2, does not work on tapes		-j		identical
-lzo		pipe input/output through lzop, does not work on tapes		--missing--
-7z		pipe input/output through p7zip, does not work on tapes		--missing--
compress-program=name pipe input/output through program 'name', does not work on tapes	--use-compress-program=PROG
-B		perform multiple reads (needed on pipes)			-B		identical
-i		ignore checksum errors						-i		similar
-d		do not store/create directories					--missing--
-m		do not restore access and modification time			-m		identical
-o,-nochown	do not restore owner and group					--no-same-owner	similar
-pax-p string	use PAX like privileges set up					--missing--
-a,-atime	reset access time after storing file				--atime-preserve partial!!!
-p		restore filemodes of directories				-p		similar ?
-no-p		do not restore file permissions					--missing--
-l		do not print a message if not all links are dumped		--missing--
-link-dirs	look for hard linked directories in create mode			--missing--
-dump		experimental option for incremental dumps (more ino metadata)	--missing--
-meta		experimental option to use inode metadata only			--missing--
-h,-L		follow symbolic links as if they were files			-h		identical
-pax-L		follow symbolic links as if they were files (PAX style)		--missing--
-pax-H		follow cmdline symbolic links as if they were files (PAX style)	--missing--
-D		do not descend directories					--no-recursion	identical
-M		do not descend mounting points					-l		GNU -l violates POSIX
-w		do interactive creation/extraction/renaming			-w		partial
-pax-i		do interactive creation/extraction/renaming (PAX style)		--missing--
-O		be compatible to old tar (except for checksum bug)		-o		GNU -o violates POSIX
-P		last record may be partial (useful on cartridge tapes)		--missing--
-S		do not store/create special files				--missing--
-F,-FF,-FFF,...	do not store/create SCCS/RCS, core and object files		--missing--
-U		restore files unconditionally					--missing--
diffopts=optlst	comma separated list of diffopts (see diffopts=help)		--missing--
xdebug=#,xd=#	set extended debug level					--missing--
-pax-ls		print a PAX type file listing					--missing--
-lowmem		try to use less memory for operation				--missing--
-not,-V		use those files which do not match pattern			--missing--
-pax-match	use PAX like pattern matching					--missing--
-pax-n		only one match per pattern allowed				--missing--
-notarg,-pax-c	use those files which do not match file type pattern		--missing--
VOLHDR=name	use name to generate a volume header				-V name		similar
-xdir		extract dir even if the current is never			--missing--
-xdot		extract first '.' or './' dir even if the current is never	--missing--
-dirmode	write directories after the files they contain			--missing--
-restore	restore incremental dumps					--missing--
-force-restore	force to restore partial incremental dumps			--missing--
-no-xheader	do not read or write extended headers regardless of format	--missing--
-dupmeta	use inode metadata in dump mode if only ctime is newer		--missing--
-keep-old-files,-k	keep existing files					-k		similar
-refresh-old-files	refresh existing files, don't create new files		--overwrite	????
-refresh									--overwrite	????
-/		don't strip leading '/'s from file names			-P		similar
-..		don't skip filenames that contain '..' in non-interactive extract	--missing--
-secure-links	don't extract links that start with '/' or contain '..'		--missing--
-no-dirslash	don't append a slash to directory names				--missing--
list=name	read filenames from named file					-I --files-from=NAME	similar
pkglist=name	read filenames from named file (unstable interface for sps)	--missing--
-read0		read null terminated filenames with list=			-null
-data-change-warn treat data/size changes in create more as warning only	--missing--
-e		abort on all error conditions undefined by errctl=		--missing--
errctl=name	read error contrl definitions from named file			--missing--
-dodesc		do descend directories found in a list= file			--missing--
pattern=p,pat=p	set matching pattern						PATTERN		not as mighty as star
-match-tree	do not scan the content of non matching dirs in create mode	--missing--
s=replstr	Apply ed like pattern substitution -s /old/new/gp on filenames	--missing--
level=dumplevel	set current incremental dump level				--missing--
-cumulative	make a cumulative incremental dump (relative to same level)	--missing--
tardumps=name	set file name for tar dump dates, default is /etc/tardumps	--missing--
-wtardumps	update file for tar dump dates if in dump mode			--missing--
dumpdate=name	use timestamp from name instead of current time for /etc/tardumps	--missing--
fs-name=name	use name instead of mount point for /etc/tardumps		--missing--
maxsize=#	do not store file if it is bigger than # kBytes			--missing--
newer=name	store only files which are newer than 'name'			--never=DATE	no find compat with GNUtar!
-multivol	read/write/list a multi volume archive				--multi-volume
new-volume-script=script	call 'scipt' at end of each volume		--new-volume-script=script identical
-ctime		use ctime for newer= option					--newer-mtime	invers idea to star
-nodump		do not dump files that have the nodump flag set			--missing--
-acl		handle access control list					--missing--
-xattr		handle extended file attributes					--missing--
-xattr-linux	handle extended file attributes (Linux variant)			--missing--
-xfflags	handle extended file flags					--missing--
-prinodes	if archive contains inode number, print them in list mode	--missing--
bs=#		set (output) block size to #					-b		de-facto missing
fs=#		set fifo size to #						--missing--
tsize=#		set tape volume size to # 512 byte blocks			-L		x 1024 bytes
-qic24		set tape volume size to 61440 kBytes				--missing--
-qic120		set tape volume size to 128000 kBytes				--missing--
-qic150		set tape volume size to 153600 kBytes				--missing--
-qic250		set tape volume size to 256000 kBytes				--missing--
-qic525		set tape volume size to 512500 kBytes				--missing--
-no-fsync	do not call fsync() for each extracted file (may be dangerous)	--missing--
-nowarn		do not print warning messages					--missing--
-time		print timing info						--totals	only partially
-no-statistics	do not print statistics						--missing--	always
-fifostats	print fifo statistics						--missing--
-numeric	don't use user/group name from tape				--numeric-owner	identical
-newest		find newest file on tape					--missing--
-newest-file	find newest regular file on tape				--missing--
-hpdev		use HP's non POSIX compliant method to store dev numbers	--missing--
-modebits	include all 16 bits from stat.st_mode (violates POSIX-1003.1)	--missing--
-copylinks	Copy hard and symlinks rather than linking			--missing--
-copyhardlinks	Copy hardlink source files rather than linking			--missing--
-copysymlinks	Copy symlink source files rather than linking			--missing--
-copydlinks	Copy the content of linked dirs					--missing--
-hardlinks	Extract symlinks as hardlinks					--missing--
-symlinks	Extract hardlinks as symlinks					--missing--
-signed-checksum	use signed chars to calculate checksum			--missing--
-sparse		handle file with holes effectively on store/create		-S --sparse	similar
-force-hole	try to extract all files with holes				--missing--
-to-stdout	extract files to stdout						-O --to-stdout
-wready		wait for tape drive to become ready				--missing--
-force-remove	force to remove non writable files on extraction		--missing--
-ask-remove	ask to remove non writable files on extraction			--missing--
-remove-first	remove files before extraction					--unlink-first
-remove-recursive	remove files recursive					--recursive-unlink
dir-owner=user	Intermediate created directories will be owned by 'user'.	--missing--
dir-group=user	Intermediate created directories will be owned by 'group'.	--missing--
umask=mask	Set star's umask to 'mask'.					--missing--
-onull,-nullout	simulate creating an achive to compute the size			-f/dev/null	in GNUtar worse than star (cannot do performance tests)

/*--------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
Gnu tar options that (in the single char variant) are incompatible:

BsS	-F, --info-script=FILE		run script at end of each tape (implies -M)
s	-L, --tape-length=NUM		change tape after writing NUM x 1024 bytes
s	-M, --multi-volume		create/list/extract multi-volume archive
s	-O, --to-stdout			extract files to standard output
sS (+)	-P, --absolute-names		don't strip leading `/'s from file names
s	-S, --sparse			handle sparse files efficiently
s	-T, -I, --files-from=NAME	get names to extract or create from file NAME
s	-U, --unlink-first		remove each file prior to extracting over it
s	-V, --label=NAME		create archive with volume name NAME
s	-d, --diff, --compare		find differences between archive and file system
sP	-l, --one-file-system		stay in local file system when creating archive
sP	-o, --old-archive, --portability write a V7 format archive

B	Incompatible with BSD tar
s	Incompatible with star
S	Incompatible with Sun's/SVr4 tar
P	Incompatible with POSIX

+)	This option is the only option where star deviates from other tar 
	implementations, but as there is no other nice way to have an option to 
	specify that the last record should be partial and the star option -/ 
	is easy to remember as well as -P for Partial record is I see no need 
	to change star.

/*--------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
Options only found in GNUtar:

GNUtar option		GNUtar description					Star remarks
====================	==================================================	=======================================
Main operation mode:
  -A, --catenate          append tar files to an archive			low importance
      --delete            delete from the archive (not on mag tapes!)		low importance

Operation modifiers:
  -W, --verify               attempt to verify the archive after writing it	not needed (may be implemented via rewind
										and -diff in star)

      --remove-files         remove files after adding them to the archive	not needed

      --ignore-failed-read   do not exit with nonzero on unreadable files	--needed-- and important

Handling of file attributes:
      --owner=NAME             force NAME as owner for added files		use star -find -chown name
      --group=NAME             force NAME as group for added files		use star -find -chgrp name
      --mode=CHANGES           force (symbolic) mode CHANGES for added files	use star -find -chmod mode
      --no-same-owner          extract files as yourself			not needed
  -s, --same-order             sort names to extract to match archive		????


Device selection and switching:
      --volno-file=FILE          use/update the volume number in FILE		--needed-- and important

Local file selection:
  -X, --exclude-from=FILE      exclude globbing patterns listed in FILE		--nice to have--
  -K, --starting-file=NAME     begin at file NAME in the archive		--nice to have--
      --backup[=CONTROL]       backup before removal, choose version control	not needed
      --suffix=SUFFIX          backup before removal, override usual suffix	not needed

Informative output:
      --checkpoint      print directory names while reading the archive		--nice to have--

