> Seems more recent versions of tars include various extensions that
> can confuse older versions of tar.  I wasn't even aware that my gnu
> tar defaulted to POSIX 2002 headers (pax) until someone told
> me their build used ARCHIVE::TAR, that doesn't understand them.
These are also problematic with plain tar binaries on "exotic" Unixes.
(Reported by Tux.)

> Problem has been temporarily glossed over by adding flags to my build
> process
> (    dist        => { TARFLAGS=> 'c --format=v7 -f' },)
> but this bothers me -- alot! Since if someone else tries a make
> tardist -- it will fail if their tar doesn't understand those flags.
I agree that creating ustar compatibility level archives is the best
solution for now.

Assert that the build process requires ptar or GNU tar. A standard (Open
Group) solution where you just set the appropriate TARFLAGS does not
exist.

> Ideas... How can I specify a tar that will work for others that
> will work for others if they build?
With Module::Build, I would override the "dist" target to use ptar.

> Too bad Archive::Tar isn't up-to-date with a 10+year old standard.
The standard says that we all should have migrated to pax archives
anyway.

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