tar 1.12. vs. 1.13.17 behaviour change /w sym links

[Howard Bampton WITC]

uname -a
SunOS witcfl08-109 5.6 Generic_105181-23 sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-60


tar 1.12 (gcc 2.8.1 compiled)
tar 1.13.17 (gcc 2.8.1 (2.6) and Sun Sparcworks C 6.0 compiled (2.8))
tar 1.13.18 (Sun Sparcworks C 6.1 compiled)

Solaris 2.6 and Solaris 8 systems.

There appears to be a rather nasty side effect of the newer version of
Gnu tar (1.13.17 and 1.13.18) where it whacks sym-links (it did not do 
so in the past) to existing directories.

Sample session below:

witcfl08-109:/tmp> ls -ld tools*
lrwxrwxrwx   1 ehb002   witc          11 Jan  3 14:40 tools -> tools.sun4v/
drwxr-xr-x   3 ehb002   witc         106 Jan  3 12:50 tools.sun4v/
witcfl08-109:/tmp> tar tvf cds_4.4.3.100.90_200101021451.JAA25821.tar 
-r--r--r-- noaccess/noaccess 0 2001-01-03 12:51 200101021451.JAA25821
dr-xr-xr-x noaccess/noaccess 0 2001-01-03 12:50 tools/
dr-xr-xr-x noaccess/noaccess 0 2001-01-03 12:50 tools/dfII/
dr-xr-xr-x noaccess/noaccess 0 2001-01-03 12:50 tools/dfII/etc/
dr-xr-xr-x noaccess/noaccess 0 2001-01-03 12:51 tools/dfII/etc/tools/
dr-xr-xr-x noaccess/noaccess 0 2001-01-03 12:50 tools/dfII/etc/tools/mcspice/
-r-xr-xr-x noaccess/noaccess 20166 2001-01-03 12:50 
tools/dfII/etc/tools/mcspice/.cdsenv
dr-xr-xr-x noaccess/noaccess     0 2001-01-03 12:51 
tools/dfII/etc/tools/mcspiceVerilog/
-r--r--r-- noaccess/noaccess 13986 2001-01-03 12:51 
tools/dfII/etc/tools/mcspiceVerilog/.cdsenv


/usr/local/bin/tar.1.12 xpf cds_4.4.3.100.90_200101021451.JAA25821.tar
/usr/local/bin/tar.1.12: 200101021451.JAA25821: Could not create file: 
Permission denied
/usr/local/bin/tar.1.12: Added write and execute permission to
directory tools
/usr/local/bin/tar.1.12: Added write and execute permission to
directory tools/dfII
/usr/local/bin/tar.1.12: Added write and execute permission to
directory tools/dfII/etc
/usr/local/bin/tar.1.12: Added write and execute permission to
directory tools/dfII/etc/tools
/usr/local/bin/tar.1.12: Added write and execute permission to
directory tools/dfII/etc/tools/mcspice
/usr/local/bin/tar.1.12: Added write and execute permission to
directory tools/dfII/etc/tools/mcspiceVerilog
/usr/local/bin/tar.1.12: Error exit delayed from previous errors

witcfl08-109:/tmp> ls -ld tools*
lrwxrwxrwx   1 ehb002   witc          11 Jan  3 14:40 tools -> tools.sun4v/
drwxr-xr-x   3 ehb002   witc         106 Jan  3 12:50 tools.sun4v/

That is the old (and "desired" behaviour).

Running 1.13.17 does something different:

witcfl08-109:/tmp> /usr/local/bin/tar-1.13.17  xpf 
cds_4.4.3.100.90_200101021451.JAA25821.tar
witcfl08-109:/tmp> ls -ld tool*
dr-xr-xr-x   3 ehb002   witc         106 Jan  3 12:50 tools/
drwxr-xr-x   2 ehb002   witc          69 Jan  3 14:50 tools.sun4v/

Notice that the "tools" sym link has been replaced with a
directory which is new (and unexpected!) behaviour....

This problem also shows up in 1.13.18.


Suggestions?