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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.
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  • what do you get from tar -tz?
    – Ram
    Commented Oct 26, 2011 at 3:05

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Try 'The Unarchiver'

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

osX is case sensitive at the command line level.

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    What do you mean with "at the command line level"? Mac OS X is neither case-senstitive nor case-unsensitive. You can have initialize your disk with HFS+ with both options. If your file system is case insensitive it will be it for both the terminal and the Finder.
    – Matteo
    Commented Oct 26, 2011 at 5:47
  • 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.
    – JDS
    Commented Oct 26, 2011 at 12:52
  • In terminal try this at $HOME cd desktop --AND-- cd Desktop You will find it is case sensitive.
    – broomdodger
    Commented Nov 6, 2011 at 18:44
  • The Unarchiver can indeed unarchive case-problematic archives and will rename conflicting files while unarchiving, appending numbers to distinguish them.
    – Tim
    Commented Sep 7, 2012 at 14:51
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"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.

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    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. ?
    – Apache
    Commented Oct 26, 2011 at 5:33
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    You don't need an external disk. Just create a disk image with "Disk Utility".
    – Matteo
    Commented Oct 26, 2011 at 5:48
  • +1 on virtual disk ideas. Didn't think of that.
    – JDS
    Commented Oct 26, 2011 at 12:50

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