Re: [Bug-tar] incompatible checksums with solaris tar, or filenamebuffer too small?

[Paul Eggert]

David Obermann <address@hidden> writes:

> I have Sparc Solaris 5.9 coming with its own tar and installed gnu
> tar version 1.14 for sparc sol 9 (sunfreeware.com)

Hmm, why did you use the sunfreeware.com version?  Solaris 9 contains
GNU tar 1.14 as /usr/sfw/bin/tar, as part of the SUNWgtar package.

> /usr/bin/tar -tf abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyza.tar
> ...
> ././@LongLink

This suggests that GNU tar created a type-L record, which Solaris 9 'tar'
cannot extract.

> /usr/bin/tar -xf abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyza.tar
> ...
> tar: directory checksum error

Solaris 10 'tar' does a better job with that archive.  But to avoid
this sort of problem on Solaris 9, you can use the --format=ustar
option when invoking GNU tar, e.g.,

/usr/sfw/bin/tar --format=ustar -cf foo.tar abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyza

Or you can use --format=v7 if you also want support for _really_ old
tar programs, though this will limit you in file length.  Conversely
you can use --format=posix if you want to export only to newer
tar-like programs that support POSIX format (this has more bells and
whistles).