Re: [Bug-tar] incompatible checksums with solaris tar, or filenamebuffer too small?

[Joerg Schilling]

Paul Eggert <address@hidden> wrote:

> > /usr/bin/tar -tf abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyza.tar
> > ...
> > ././@LongLink
>
> This suggests that GNU tar created a type-L record, which Solaris 9 'tar'
> cannot extract.

... because this is a vendor unique extension from GNU tar.

> > /usr/bin/tar -xf abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyza.tar
> > ...
> > tar: directory checksum error
>
> Solaris 10 'tar' does a better job with that archive.  But to avoid
> this sort of problem on Solaris 9, you can use the --format=ustar
> option when invoking GNU tar, e.g.,
>
> /usr/sfw/bin/tar --format=ustar -cf foo.tar abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyza
>
> Or you can use --format=v7 if you also want support for _really_ old
> tar programs, though this will limit you in file length.  Conversely
> you can use --format=posix if you want to export only to newer
> tar-like programs that support POSIX format (this has more bells and
> whistles).

Using gtar --format=v7 does not help in this case as gtar would omit the long 
file name if it honors the wish to create V7 tar archives. In fact, totay
there is not a propblem with other tar implementations that do not support
recent archive standards but a problem caused by the fact that GNU tar started 
to support the POSIX.1-1988 standard very recently. The gtar-1.14 that was 
available at the time Solaris 10 was released does e.g. not support 
POSIX.1-1988 correctly in all cases.

Are there plans to make gtar by default create archives that are closer to the 
POSIX standard in the near future?

Jörg

-- 
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