problems with gzip and tar

[dwolf]

I am happily running MD 8 on a Dell Latitude C600 laptop. In an effort to update my mozilla software, I downloaded a new build as a tar.gz file. When I try gunzipping the file I get the error message: gunzip:mozilla_i668-pc-linux-gnu.0.9.2.installer.tar.gz: not in gzip format

I can tar and gzip/gunzip other files. Is the file corrupted somehow or am I doing something wrong? To be complete, I should add that I downloaded another file: gefax_o_4_3.tar.gz which has the same problem. At the same time, I was able to tar and gunzip other downloaded archives.

My fault? Thanks!

[Tyr-7BE]

I've noticed this a lot lately...new "feature" in tar? A lot of tar.gz files aren't gzipped, or tar automatically does it, or something like that.

Normally:

tar -zvxf <filename>.tar.gz

What I often find:

tar -vxf <filename>.tar.gz

Give tar -vxf a shot.

[dwolf]

Thanks, worked beautifully! How am I supposed to know?

[Hummer]

To my understanding, a "tar.gz" file extension indicates that the said file or program was first "tarred" (or "tarballed"?) then zipped again with Gunzip. But I've found that a lot of programs with the tar.gz extensions haven't been Gunzipped at all - they've just been tarred, but given the (redundant) gz extension. Kinda stupid really.

Anyway, the easy work around is to just run the tar command if you're told that the programmed isnt gunzipped. 9 times out of 10, that'll do the trick and tar will decompress the package.

Hummer (who thinks that there needs to be more RPMs and less tar.gz files)

[Super Bakemono]

Your web browser may have unzipped it but left the extension.

[bdg1983]

How am I supposed to know?

The same as the rest of us. Through trial and error. :)