[Bug-tar] tar: ./anywhere/anydir/: Directory renamed before its status could be extracted <-- version 1.13.25 RedHat based dist

[Filipe Vinci Dos Santos]

I am trying to install some software which is packaged using compressed 
tar files, for several Unix platforms. I am doing this on a x86 PC 
(Pentium III, run-of-the-mill hardware) under a 2.4.whatever kernel 
(supposed to have started life as a RedHat 7.3 distro).

The thing is, my old buddy tar is giving me a hell of a time... Halfway in 
the middle of the install, deep, deep in some ugly script, I get the error 
msg,

tar: ./long/convoluted/install/path/destination/dir/: Directory renamed before 
its status could be extracted

after a suitably long cascade of these (several thousand lines...) I get 
something horribly familiar,

tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

and of course everything comes crashing down. 

I spent some time chasing down into the scripts, and I checked by hand
feeding several of the files into tar using the "tar ztv" incantantion
that the files are pristine, in so far as checking out fine. 

If I switch from voyeur to real action (still using only my hands, mind
you, no let's-go-wild-now-babe thing) I manage to extract the files from
the archive, but tar barfs at the end with the same error msg, painstaking
manual handling changes nothing.

The files and the full destination are created fine, permissions are ok, I
checked one by one, but given the error exit code tar is returning, the
install script won't go any further than the first gigabyte of the full
install. One down, Two more to go. Gigabytes. That's a lot.


Is this a known bug ? Anyone has a quick and easy fix, please ? tar 
--version gives me 1.13.25 and I see noone else around with anything more 
advanced than that.

I looked at alpha.gnu.org, gnu/tar seems to have a lot of bit-action, but, 
can normal people who are *not* developers just compile one of those 
versions and run with it ? Is there a stable-alpha version that does not 
break too often that I could try? Best scenario is, someone has a 
pre-compiled statically linked one for x86 systems w/ 2.4.XYX kernels that 
does not have this problem... I do not know if this is related to the 
version of glibc... The only "strange" thing in the setup I am doing this 
is that I am extracting from an iso9660 image file mounted using the loop 
option to a umsdos FAT32 filesystem. Who knows, maybe tar does not like 
UMSDOS, but IMHO it should be transparent to it what kind of filesystem 
it's reading/writing from/to.

If any one out there has a solution, please send me an email... I have to
solve this, and the only solution I can think of is doing a cross=platform
install w/ a Solaris machine, using the native tar from sun. But then, 
I'll have to find and install a sun machine!

Thanks in advance for any help,

Filipe