[Bug-tar] 3GB+ and DVD+RW

[Dave Jarvis]

Hi,

I believe I found a bug in tar when dealing with large (3GB+) files. 
First, I created a backup archive of several directories containing 
nearly 37,000 files of various sizes (16MB TIFF images, small HTML files).

After writing this large file to a DVD+RW, I ran the following command 
to verify the contents of the backup archive:

$ tar -tvf /mnt/dvd/backup.tar
... huge, but incomplete, file listing ...
Segmentation fault

I performed the same command on the original file, stored on a 20GB hard 
drive, without error:

$ tar -tvf /archive/backup.tar
... huge file listing, no errors ...

$ ls -la /archive/backup.tar /mnt/dvd/backup.tar
-rw-r--r-- 3645829120 2005-12-11 20:27 /archive/backup.tar
-rw-r--r-- 3645829120 2005-12-11 20:27 /mnt/dvd/backup.tar

$ wc -l /archive/backup.log
36987 /archive/backup.log

$ tar --version
tar (GNU tar) 1.15.1

After verifying that the original file has no errors (tar -tvf), I 
proceeded to copy the DVD+RW version over the original file (to ensure 
that both the DVD's version of the file, the DVD, the DVD+RW drive, the 
file system, and the local hard drive are all performing correctly):

$ cp /mnt/dvd/backup.tar /archive

Next, I tried the same tar command on the DVD's copy (now stored locally):

$ tar -tvf /archive/backup.tar
... huge file listing, no errors ...

Thus the file itself has no errors on the DVD, however the tar program 
was unable to read the contents of the entire file when it is stored on 
the DVD. However, when stored locally, the tar command can test the 
entire contents of the 3GB file without failure.

$ uname -a
Linux jaguar 2.6.11.4-21.9-default #1 Fri Aug 19 11:58:59 UTC 2005 i686 
athlon i386 GNU/Linux (SUSE 9.3 Professional)

Sincerely,
Dave Jarvis