[plug] Unpacking tarballs

[Nick Bannon]

On Wed, Jun 07, 2000 at 03:15:48PM +0800, Earnshaw, Mike wrote:
[...]
> tar: skipping to next file header
> gzip: stdin: invalid compressed data--format violated
> tar: child returned status 1
> tar: error exit delayed from previous errors

Yep, looks bad.

Any file corruption can easily and completely destroy a compressed
file, so gzip puts in checksums and will tell you if they fail to
match when you unpack things. "gzip -t filename.gz" will confirm it
for you.

> Does this mean the tarball is cactus? I have downloaded it twice already
> (well three times since I got the wrong tarball the first time ... der )
> and I am worried I may be using a bad site or something.

Well, if most of the file is OK, you could try using rsync to patch it
up - that should be much quicker. Something like ;

cp linux-X.Y.Z.tar.gz /tmp
cd /tmp
rsync rsync://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/kernel-linux/vX.Y/linux-X.Y.Z.tar.gz linux-X.Y.Z.tar.gz

(or maybe "rsync -v --stats --partial --progress")

Nick.

-- 
  Nick Bannon  | "I made this letter longer than usual because
nick at it.net.au | I lack the time to make it shorter." - Pascal