Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!ox.com!math.fu-berlin.de!unido!nixpbe!nixsin!koerber.sin@sni.de
From: koerber.sin@sni.de (Mathias Koerber)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Problem with tar
Message-ID: <1998@nixsin.UUCP>
Date: 20 Jun 91 01:04:10 GMT
References: <1560@cash.cs.utexas.edu>
Sender: koerberm@nixsin.UUCP
Reply-To: koerber.sin@sni.de
Organization: Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems (Singapore) Pte Ltd
Lines: 37

In article <1560@cash.cs.utexas.edu> luong@cs.utexas.edu (Hue Nhu Luong) writes:
|
|I try to un-tar the file xloadimage.3.01.tar by entering:
|
|	tar -xvf xloadimage.3.01.tar
|
|But what I get is a bunch of boloneies like this:
|
|	tar: can't set time on Imakefile: Not owner
|	tar: can't set time on Makefile: Not owner
|	tar: can't set time on Makefile.std: Not owner
|	tar: README: HELP - extract write error: Permission denied
|	x Imakefile, 1847 bytes, 4 tape blocks
|	x Makefile, 6758 bytes, 14 tape blocks
|	x Makefile.std, 6758 bytes, 14 tape blocks
|	x README, 15694 bytes, 31 tape blocks
|
|Can somebody help me with this?

a) be sure you have write access in the directory you are untaring in.

and more important:

b) use tar -xvof xloadimage.3.01.tar
			  ^

   the o keyletter makes you owner of all files you grabbed off the archive.
   Otherwise tar tries to reinstate the original owner/group (using the
   number,not the name), and that may not be you. After it grabbed it, changed
   the owner to the original, it tries to re-set the time, and can't since
   it's not your file anymore.

PS: "o" is not documented on my system, but works.

Hope this helps.

Mathias