David Obermann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > I have Sparc Solaris 5.9 coming with its own tar and installed gnu > tar version 1.14 for sparc sol 9 (sunfreeware.com)
Hmm, why did you use the sunfreeware.com version? Solaris 9 contains GNU tar 1.14 as /usr/sfw/bin/tar, as part of the SUNWgtar package. > /usr/bin/tar -tf abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyza.tar > ... > ././@LongLink This suggests that GNU tar created a type-L record, which Solaris 9 'tar' cannot extract. > /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).
