how to check/validate the tar.gz files before un-tar

Question

when we uncompressed tar.gz file with tar xfz

tar xfz redhatPkgInstallation.tar.gz 

we get the following errors

gzip: stdin: decompression OK, trailing garbage ignored
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
failed while , error 2

is it possible to check tar.gz files propriety before we untar the file?

goal - check/validate the tar.gz file before un-tar ,

Solution

Importing from stackoverflow user John Boker's answer, one can do it in several ways:

1. To test the gzip file is not corrupt:

   gunzip -t file.tar.gz
   

2. To test the tar file inside is not corrupt:

   gunzip -c file.tar.gz | tar t > /dev/null
   

Comments

[Weijun Zhou]

Already answered here: stackoverflow.com/questions/2001709/…

[Vishnu Kumar]

bunzip2 -t file.tar.gz if you used bzip2