I suggest that tar check if a file exists before trying to make a network connection. This would eliminate the need for --force-local in (I expect) most cases. As in:
$ touch foo:bar $ tar xf foo:bar tar: Cannot connect to foo: resolve failed whereas I'd prefer/expect the usual error: tar: This does not look like a tar archive Also, since the whole idea of tar making network connections is highly non-traditional, I also suggest making an environment variable that turns off the network stuff completely. TAR_NO_NETWORK or some such. Since --force-local eliminates the possibility of using traditional no-dash options, an alias does not suffice. It is not desirable to make wrapper scripts for something as basic as tar. Just an idea/wish ... --thanks, karl.
