[Bug-tar] odd tar behavior

[Rich Rattanni]

I am having an issue with tar.  First let me describe my setup.

Tar Version: tar (GNU tar) 1.15.1
Linux Kernel: 2.6.15-27-386
Distro: Ubuntu 6.10

I run UFTP on my server to accept incoming backups from various
sources.  The backups are tar'ed and then encrypted using openssl.
When the server receives a backup (it simply scans a directory every
few seconds) it decrypts, then untars the files into their proper
location.

Now my issue:
After some time (may be a few files, may be one hundred) my script's
attempts to untar files fail with exit status 2.  I have scoured the
web for an explanation of exit status 2 and only found one comment
that stated 2 was an 'Internationalization Error' and 'should never
happen'.  So I am sure this is somehow my error, but I do not see what
I am doing wrong.  If I can provide any more information let me know.

Simple script overview (with respect to tar):
....
#Capture the directory name from the output of the download
dirname=$(tar -xzvf $download)
exit_stat=$?
if [ "$exit_stat" -ne "0" ]; then
 ...
fi
...

This is run every few seconds, and only runs when a new file is
available for download.

Thanks,
Richard