Hello everyone,
I looked at the contents of the tar-file in hex editor.
What I noticed is that the tar header is formed incorrectly. It's supposed to
contain the "ustar" TMAGIC indicator at offset 257 followed by a null. But, what
I get is "ustar" followed by a space (0x20). Then at offset 263, it's
supposed to be the TVERSION version "00", but I am seeing a space (0x20) and then a
null (0x00).
Tar creates this kind of header:
0000400 \0 u s t a r \0 m a k i n e n
The correct form should be:
0000400 \0 u s t a r \0 0 0 \0 m a k i n e n
In the tar source code header-file tar/tar.h this defines this as follows:
...
#define TMAGIC "ustar" /* ustar magic 6 chars + '\0' */
#define TMAGLEN 6 /* "ustar" including '\0' */
#define TVERSION "00"
#define TVERSLEN 2
...
In the comment it is said TMAGIC has "ustar + null", but there is only
string "ustar" set, not the null after it. Maybe this is the reason for the
incorrect header?
I
found a build for the GNU tar from 2003 and this bug was also there, so
maybe it has circulated over 20 years...
Kind Regards,
<Juha/>