The --help output states that -p is default for superuser, the man page does not. This is very confusing and should be fixed. The --help output: -p, --preserve-permissions, --same-permissions extract information about file permissions (default for superuser) --preserve same as both -p and -s --same-owner try extracting files with the same ownership as exists in the archive (default for superuser) The man tar output: -p, --preserve-permissions extract all protection information --same-owner create extracted files with the same ownership Reproducible: Always The tar man page is packaged separately, as the tar tarball does not come with a man page, so this isn't an upstream bug.
Created attachment 301353 [details, diff] patch adding "default for superuser" to man page Patch for /usr/portage/app-arch/tar/files/tar.1
man page of >=tar-1.27 contains that piece of information. As we are already in the process of stabilizing =app-arch/tar-1.27.1-r1 let's wait for that version to become stable.
