Re: [Bug-tar] Bug / question in tar

[Pavel Raiskup]

Hello Dan,

> I have an issue with tar, it seems tar manages to create archive of
> files larger than 8GB how ever, the header becomes curropted and thus
> tar is unable to extract the archive.

what format are you using?

The 'pax' format (e.g.) is able to store files larger than 8GB and it
"works for me".  Don't you have example how you create/extract an archive
(possibly with complete tar's error output)?

I am aware of the only (tiny) issue with big sparse files [1] but this
bugreport is not about sparse files probably.

> I've Googled around and all solutions that were given were not the ones
> I needed.  I wanted to know if this bug is being worked on / was already
> fixed? (I've downloaded the latest version but it didn't work there
> too).

Not a question directly for me;  but I don't know about existing bug -- so
we need a reproducer if there is one.

> Is there any problem in representing the file size in the header with
> Hexadecimal base rather than octal? Won't that give tar the option to
> create and extract files larger than 8GB with out much of a change?

This really rather seems like you are using 'ustar' header which limits
the max file size stored into archive to mentioned 8GB.  The 'pax' format
uses 'size' [2] extended header which is not limited this way.

The octal representation may not be changed to hexadecimal at least
because it would go against the tar specification.

[1] http://www.mail-archive.com/bug-tar%40gnu.org/msg03909.html
[2] http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695299/utilities/pax.html

Pavel