Problem with tar archive

[Lowell Gilbert]

sp0ng3b0b <sp0ng3b0b at sbcglobal.net> writes:

> freebsd_daemon wrote:
> > Dear list,
> > I got a tar archive (varia.tar), when I try to un-tar it I get:
> > # tar xvf ./varia.tar
> > ../varia/
> > tar: ../varia/: Member name contains `..'
> > ../varia/bkup200401.gz
> > tar: ../varia/bkup200401.gz: Member name contains `..'
> > [...]
> > ../varia/bkup200411.gz
> > tar: ../varia/bkup200411.gz: Member name contains `..'
> > tar: Error exit delay from previous error
> > Is there a way to un-tar that archive despite of that?
> > TIA
> > zheyu
> >
> I had some strange tar problems with bsd tar, which is included with
> 5.3-RELEASE. I would recommend installing gtar and using that
> instead. By the way, if you install gtar, you just type "tar" as you
> normally would.

With Gnu tar *or* BSD tar, you will need a '-P' option to extract
directories that contain '..'.  [It's very easy to overwrite something
unintentionally if this capability were available by default.]