Re: [Bug-tar] Using tar on a file with a non-ASCII filename

[Jan-Benedict Glaw]

On Fri, 2007-06-29 15:41:57 -0700, Ruth Griswold <address@hidden> wrote:
> I have a program set up to archive several folders on a server  
> computer every night using the tar command. These folders contain  
> files which are put onto the server from people in other countries,  
> so there are some filenames that are in ASCII format.
> 
> I recently ran into a problem where I was unable to open one of the  
> tar files created. Running the tar -x command identified one  
> particular file within the tar file that was causing problems, and  
> when I removed this file, the archive worked properly.
> The error it gave me was:
>       "Demo/Catal\340.pdf: Cannot open: Invalid argument. Error exit  
> delayed from previous errors"

The filesystem you're extracting to create files with those non-ASCII
bytes. What kind of operating system and filesystem do the two
machines have (the one you're creating the tarball on, and extracting
machine)?

> When I try to use the tar -list command on the file, I get the  
> following:
>       "macmini:~/Desktop macmini$ tar --list -f Demo.tar.bz2
>       tar: This does not look like a tar archive
>       tar: Skipping to next header
>       tar: Archive contains obsolescent base-64 headers
>       tar: Read 7182 bytes from Demo.tar.bz2
>       tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors"

The `.bz2' extension suggests that this is a bzip2 compressed tar
archive. You have to supply "-y", too, to decompress it.

> This file is not corrupted, I can open it without any problems, I am  
> assuming that the issue is that the name is not in ASCII format. It  
> is called CatalA.pdf, with a tilde over the last A, and the pdf is in  
> another language.

This is widely dependant on the operating system and filesystem used.

> I also have some filenames in Chinese characters, which show up as  
> empty boxes in the document title. When I archive the folder with  
> these files, there is no problem creating an openable archive, but  
> all of these files are left out of it. There is a message for each  
> one when the archive is being created, where the empty boxes are  
> replaced with 0's and there is an error message about each specific  
> file.

Specific error messages? Operating system? File system? Localization
settings?

> Is there any way using tar to create an archive of all of the files  
> that I want to, regardless of whether or not they are in ASCII, or do  
> I need to convert them into a different format each time?

tar will just put all the files (and their names) as-is into the
archive, and extract them as-is. You have to make sure that the
operating systems as well as file systems are compatible.

MfG, JBG

-- 
      Jan-Benedict Glaw      address@hidden              +49-172-7608481
 Signature of:                            If it doesn't work, force it.
 the second  :                   If it breaks, it needed replacing anyway.

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