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The tar program is a great program. It archives files, it unarchives files, one could go so far as to say it's a cornerstone of the Unix/Linux world. "Tar is great," you might be saying to yourself, "but I need a newer version than what comes on my (gs) Grid-Service, one with more fiddly bits."

Fellow reader, you are in luck! A local copy of tar can indeed be built on your server, quite easily in fact. Read on to unlock the secrets of doing such a thing!

Important Information before proceeding

This article assumes the user is comfortable with SSH and understands how to build programs via SSH.

Instructions

Coming soon

1. Log into your server via SSH, use wget to download the latest release (1.26 as of this writing), unarchive it, and change into the tar-1.26 directory:

   wget http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/tar/tar-1.26.tar.gz
   tar -zxvf tar-1.26.tar.gz
   cd tar-1.26

2. On dedicated servers, one could just run ./configure by itself, and move ahead. Since we are on a shared-service, we need to define the absolute path to the directory where the binary will be installed after it is compiled. This requires we visit the (gs) Grid-Service "Server Guide" inside the AccountCenter. Look for a section called "cluster", and take note of the following:
   • Site Number
   • Grid Cluster
   • Storage Segment
3. Now that we have our information, we can start the installation. For example, if you are on Grid Cluster 1 (c01), Storage Segment 23 (h23), Site Number 456, and you want to use the data/tar directory, you would enter the following commands:

   ./configure --prefix=/nfs/c01/h23/mnt/456/data/tar
   make
   make install

   Of course, your numbers and directories will be different, but I suggest sticking with the data/tar directory. It will take a few minutes to fully compile and build the program, so go grab something to drink, or check out what's on TV.

4. With your custom-built version of tar compiled and installed, you need to configure your SSH shell to use your local copy, instead of the server version. A quick one line command will take care of this:

   echo "alias tar='~/data/tar/bin/tar'" >> ~/.bash_profile

   With this done, log out of SSH and log back in, then run tar --version to make sure it's working. If it is, you will see the below:

   tar (GNU tar) 1.26
   Copyright (C) 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
   License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
   This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
   There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
   
   Written by John Gilmore and Jay Fenlason.

5. ♪ Celebrate, because you are done! ♪

Resources

Tar - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)