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Thanks for the clarification. I'm confused too. That text has been there for a long time. The repo show this text is unchanged since at least 1.14 from 2004 -

Thanks for the clarification. I'm confused too. That text has been there for a long time. The repo show this text is unchanged since at least 1.14 from 2004 - see https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/tar.git/tree/doc/tar.texi?h=release_1_14#n4130 https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/tar.git/tree/doc/tar.texi?... The next section adds: > The reason tar does not overwrite the older file when updating it is that writing to the middle of a section of tape is a difficult process. Tapes are not designed to go backward. See section Tapes and Other Archive Media, for more information about tapes. Hee-hee! That section mentions EXEBYTE tapes, which I last used in 1992, and was the last time I did an actual tape backup. hasheddan ? Why did you decide to post this?

hasheddan 5y ago
Posted because I love when software reminds us of the limits of hardware :)
- eesmith 5y ago
  While I can appreciate that view, as you see, your oblique pointer instead made people think it concerned a recent bug in tar. I think linking to "Tapes are not designed to go backward." would have been a more direct expression of your love.