Bug 96780

Summary:	Whoops ! tar truncates sparse files which are >=4GB
Product:	Gentoo Linux	Reporter:	Joël <world.root>
Component:	[OLD] Core system	Assignee:	Gentoo's Team for Core System packages <base-system>
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED
Severity:	critical
Priority:	High
Version:	2005.0
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Package list:		Runtime testing required:	---
Attachments:	Testing script sparse.patch xheader.patch

Description Joël 2005-06-22 06:15:03 UTC

I'm attaching a test script. This happens at least with GNU tar 1.15.1 on x86.

When 'S' command-line switch is removed, tar will perform as expected.

Comment 1 Joël 2005-06-22 06:19:24 UTC

Created attachment 61717 [details]
Testing script

First pass creates a sparse tar file. Extraction is incorrect.
Second pass creates a normal tar file. Extraction is fine.
The second pass requires 4G of HDD space.

Comment 2 Joël 2005-06-22 06:26:12 UTC

Tested under reiser4 and reiserfs.

====== From documentation ======

   The following table summarizes the limitations of each of these
formats:

Format  UID            File Size      Path Name      Devn
gnu     1.8e19         Unlimited      Unlimited      63
oldgnu  1.8e19         Unlimited      Unlimited      63
v7      2097151        8GB            99             n/a
ustar   2097151        8GB            256            21
posix   Unlimited      Unlimited      Unlimited      Unlimited

====== From tar --help ======

*This* tar defaults to:
--format=gnu -f- -b20 --rmt-command=/usr/sbin/rmt

Comment 3 SpanKY gentoo-dev

2005-06-22 18:41:41 UTC

can you please e-mail this issue to the bug tar list ?  you'll get a lot more
help a lot faster if you do so ...

http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-tar

Comment 4 Joël 2005-06-23 00:33:32 UTC

SpanKY:  ok, I've just sent it with a reference to gentoo bugzilla page. Thanks !

Comment 5 Joël 2005-06-23 05:54:52 UTC

Response from upstream developer:

> I've had a serious issue when backing up large sparse files with tar
> 1.15.1.

This has been fixed in CVS. Thanks for reporting.

Regards,
Sergey

Comment 6 SpanKY gentoo-dev

2005-06-23 10:27:16 UTC

ok, i'll look through upstream cvs and see if i can find/grab the fix for this

thanks

Comment 7 SpanKY gentoo-dev

2005-06-23 17:12:56 UTC

Created attachment 61813 [details, diff]
sparse.patch

Comment 8 SpanKY gentoo-dev

2005-06-23 17:13:10 UTC

Created attachment 61814 [details, diff]
xheader.patch

Comment 9 SpanKY gentoo-dev

2005-06-23 17:13:53 UTC

could you try these patches and see if one or the other (or both) fix the issue ?

Comment 10 Joël 2005-06-24 00:31:17 UTC

Thanks !

Unfortunately I've tried applying the two patches, both together and separately,
and they don't solve the problem..

Comment 11 Robin Johnson archtester

2006-10-05 00:24:53 UTC

tested this, problem no longer exists.