Bug#1174: tar gives `Visible longname error'

[iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)]

Package: tar
Version: 1.11.8-1

My backup log reports:

tar --totals -lvvc -b32 -f/dev/st0 -T/var/local/backup/this-fsys >>log
tar: var: On a different filesystem; not dumped
tar: usr: On a different filesystem; not dumped
tar: u: On a different filesystem; not dumped
tar: old: On a different filesystem; not dumped
tar: cdrom: On a different filesystem; not dumped
tar: proc: On a different filesystem; not dumped
tar: dos: On a different filesystem; not dumped
tar: var/spool/news: On a different filesystem; not dumped
tar: u/ian: On a different filesystem; not dumped
tar: Visible longname error
Total bytes written: 1254490112

tar appears to write all the data, but exits with a non-zero exit
status.

The longest line in the 13Mb `log' file is
-rw-rw-r-- root/root            0 Feb 26 01:25 1995 usr/local/src/old/ncurses-1.8.7/runtime-tmp/usr/lib/terminfo/c/concept108-rv-4p link to usr/local/src/old/ncurses-1.8.7/runtime-tmp/usr/lib/terminfo/c/c108-rv-4p

(/var/local/backup/this-fsys contains:
TAPEID
etc/passwd
etc/group
.
usr
var
var/spool/news
u
u/ian
dos
old
TAPEID
)

I find this worrying.  Does it mean that the backup in question is not
useable ?  Perhaps I should go back to my old patched tar 1.11.2.

Ian.