Re: N900: tar broken?
 

Strange, it detects it by checking device & inode (and so does GNU tar btw). Is there some weird filesystem out there where these are not reliable?

Re: N900: tar broken?
 

It is difficult for me to answer. But I remember the situations then I got this problem for sure. May be - symlinks?

EDIT: But anywhere, good to listen that some protection is now in tar.

Re: N900: tar broken?
 

The only situation I can think of is when tar is separated from the final output file by one or more processes (eg "tar cf - . | gzip > foo.tar" vs "tar czf foo.tar .") in which case it can't be reasonably expected to detect it.

Ironically GNU tar is a bit more fragile in this respect, it can't detect even the second case.

Re: N900: tar broken?
 

have a problem with tar-gnu too.
i can't update it to a newer version,and if i try to remove it via terminal it gives me this error code-
any hints?

Re: N900: tar broken?
 

sooo any help guys?
problem is still there

Re: N900: tar broken?
 

One, try a reinstall:
apt-get install --reinstall tar-gnu

Two, I suggest looking into BackupMenu(link in my signature) - It does exactly what the OP is trying to do. At the very least, you can take the exact tar command I used and copy it.

Re: N900: tar broken?
 

You could put that xterm out of it's misery for a start ;) look at it! It's colour and fonts burn my eyes