RE: [Bug-tar] tar --append corrupts ustar-format archive

[Adye, TJ \(Tim\)]

Hi Sergey,

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sergey Poznyakoff <address@hidden>
> Sent: 15 February 2005 17:26
> To: Adye, TJ (Tim); address@hidden
> Subject: RE: [Bug-tar] tar --append corrupts ustar-format archive
> 
> > One observation: even with the long filenames it still only 
> > seemed to occur some of the time - or I only got the error message 
> > some of the time.
> 
> Sure, it depends on where exactly the name would be split. 
>  
> > Or is there any danger of a corrupted file without an error message 
> > from tar?
> 
> No, there is not.

Unfortunately I found a case where you could have gotten a corrupted
file without an error message (for tar files generated before your fix).
If you use my original script [*], but remove the final tar -tv, then no
error message is generated. However the tar file is unreadable, even
with your fixed tar or with Solaris tar.

I'm going back over my old archives and checking whether I have any
problems. So far I found one corrupted file, but fortunately I happen to
still have the original data for that.

Tim.

[*] I reproduce my original script here:-

#!/bin/sh
tar="tar-1.15.1 -Hustar -f tarfile.tar"
dir=groups/skims/isPhysicsEvents/0000/9900/P10.2.3gV06fb/00009974/cb001/
Skim1044cObjy/P0000/Kanga1046cAllEvents/P0000/KangaIndexSkim1240g/P0000/
BC
file=BCMuMuKanga-skim.root
set -x
mkdir -p $dir
touch $dir/${file}1 $dir/${file}2
$tar -c $dir/${file}1
$tar -r $dir/${file}2
$tar -tv