Re: [Bug-tar] tar command gives error bad CPU type in executable

[Chuck Swiger]

Hi--

[ ...collecting several replies, possibly for the sake of brevity... ;-) ]

On Aug 28, 2012, at 11:56 PM, Gautam Sai Krishna wrote:
> Thanks for replying me , i have runed the command --  file /usr/bin/tar, in 
> my terminal
> and it gave me o/p :
> 
> /usr/bin/tar: Mach-O executable ppc
> 
> so what should i do know?
> 
> and my system configuration is : iMac , processor 2.5 Ghz intel core i5

Well, you've somehow managed to get a PowerPC-only binary of tar.
That would have to come from a 10.3 or earlier version, since:

% sw_vers | grep ProductVersion
ProductVersion: 10.4.11
% file /usr/bin/tar
/usr/bin/tar: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures
/usr/bin/tar (for architecture i386):   Mach-O executable i386
/usr/bin/tar (for architecture ppc):    Mach-O executable ppc
% /usr/bin/tar --version
tar (GNU tar) 1.14 +CVE-2006-0300 +CVE-2006-6097

% sw_vers | grep ProductVersion
ProductVersion: 10.5.5
% file /usr/bin/tar
/usr/bin/tar: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures
/usr/bin/tar (for architecture i386):   Mach-O executable i386
/usr/bin/tar (for architecture ppc7400):        Mach-O executable ppc
% /usr/bin/tar --version
tar (GNU tar) 1.15.1

% sw_vers | grep ProductVersion
ProductVersion: 10.6.8
% file /usr/bin/tar
/usr/bin/tar: Mach-O universal binary with 3 architectures
/usr/bin/tar (for architecture x86_64): Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64
/usr/bin/tar (for architecture i386):   Mach-O executable i386
/usr/bin/tar (for architecture ppc7400):        Mach-O executable ppc
% /usr/bin/tar --version
bsdtar 2.6.2 - libarchive 2.6.2

Any of these, or 10.7 tar of course, should at least run on an Intel-based iMac.

On Aug 29, 2012, at 3:29 AM, Joerg Schilling wrote:
> This is a gtar mailing list, are you sure, Apple is using gtar as system 
> default tar?

For some time, they were.  MacOS X switched to bsdtar in 10.6 / Snow Leopard.

On Aug 29, 2012, at 8:19 AM, Tim Kientzle wrote:
> I believe this happens when you try to run an old (Lion)
> executable on Mountain Lion.

He's got a PowerPC-only binary, for some reason.  Anything from 10.4.4 or later 
ought to be
runnable on Gautam's hardware, although 10.8 tries to be 64-bit only.

> Have you replaced /usr/bin/tar on this system?
> 
> If you have, what did you replace it with?

These are good questions.  :-)

> If not, then it probably indicates that your upgrade
> to Mountain Lion failed and left some of the old Lion
> files behind.  You may need to re-install Mountain Lion
> to recover.

And this sounds like good advise.  While folks could mail you a tar binary from 
10.8,
one has to wonder what else wasn't properly upgraded...

Regards,
-- 
-Chuck