Untar a given linux tarball on MAC OS X

Question

I have a Linux tarball that can't be unpacked. It gives me an unexpected error. I am told this is due to case insensitive on MAC OS X. How can I untar this file?

tar -zxvf file.tar.gz
...
x output/common.xml
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors.

Solution 1

Try 'The Unarchiver'

http://code.google.com/p/theunarchiver/downloads/list

osX is case sensitive at the command line level.

Solution 2

"I am told this is due to case insensitive on mac os x"

If case insensitivity really is the issue, try this:

Try plugging in an external USB disk, and formatting it to HFS+ with case sensitiviety enabled (that's an option somewhere in Disk Utility)

Copy the tarball there.

Perform the untar there.

Alternatively, use another FS that is case sensitive, such as ext3 or xfs. I'm pretty sure there are Mac OS X packages available to support those.

Comments

[Ram]

what do you get from tar -tz?

[Apache]

Comment: Why don't you simply create some kind of virtual drive? And mount that, format that, and untar/work there with case sensitive stuff. ?

[JDS]

+1 on virtual disk ideas. Didn't think of that.

[JDS]

HFS+ is case aware but not case sensitive, for default installs of Mac OS X. You can, however, turn on case-sensitivity when formatting a new disk/partition/thingy.

[broomdodger]

In terminal try this at $HOME cd desktop --AND-- cd Desktop You will find it is case sensitive.

[Tim]

The Unarchiver can indeed unarchive case-problematic archives and will rename conflicting files while unarchiving, appending numbers to distinguish them.