In some email I received from Luke Mewburn, sie wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 12, 2001 at 10:17:05PM +1100, Darren Reed wrote:
> > Using /usr/bin/tar, are there any known instances where it generates a
> > format which is incompatible with others, such as Solaris ?
> > 
> > I've had repeated problems with it creating tar files with incorrect
> > checksums (according to Solaris).  I've had different results using
> > the SunOS4 /bin/tar on Solaris to the native tar for Solaris.
> > 
> > Winzip doesn't appear so bothered by it and NetBSD's tar will still
> > extract files without any problems.
> > 
> > Why don't I think it is a RAM or similar problem ?
> > These both fail (at the same location):
> > 
> > netbsd% tar cf - foo | rsh solaris "tar xf -"
> > netbsd% tar cf foo.tar foo; rcp foo.tar solaris: rsh solaris tar xf foo.tar
> > 
> > and they always fail at the same point.  If I transfer the .tar file to a
> > different box and then to solaris, it still appears "corrupt".
> 
> What if you use GNU tar on solaris?

I think I've tried that and "no luck".

> Isn't Solaris tar limited to filenames <= 100 characters and doesn't
> support certain types of devices?

I don't know.

Using "pax -x tar" did solve the problem :-)

<phone> mmm, pax

Darren