[ncl-install] Problem untarring compiled binaries

[Mary Haley]

Hi Helen,

I admit that I've never seen this message before. I don't think this is an issue with the tar file, but rather with your "tar" command.

I googled your error message and got several suggestions. Most of them seem to indicate that you are either running a really old "tar" command and you need to upgrade, or you are running a special version of "tar", when you really should be using the one installed to /usr/bin/tar.

First, you need to make sure you are not using some special tar command. Type:

On the UNIX command line, type:

   which tar

If it reports something other than /usr/bin/tar, then this may mean that you are using a special "tar" command that that might have been built for a PowerPC system. You will need to make sure that /usr/bin is on your search path before whatever path your tar command is on, to see if this fixes the issue.

If it does report /usr/bin/tar, then type:

lipo -info /usr/bin/tar


to see what architecture your "tar" command was built for. Since you have an Intel system, it should report something like:

Non-fat file: /usr/bin/tar is architecture: x86_64

If it doesn't have "x86_64" in the list, then this means that your tar command is old and you need to upgrade it.  You might be able to do this by updating your XCode suite, or via MacPorts.  If you google this error message you may find other useful suggestions on how to fix it.

--Mary

On Oct 15, 2013, at 10:56 PM, "Parish, Helen" <hparish at ess.ucla.edu> wrote:

> I have downloaded the compiled binary ncl_ncarg-6.1.2.MacOS_10.7_64bit_nodap_gcc450.tar to my Mac OSX 10.7.2 with Intel processors. However, I am unable to untar the file, and get an error message: " Launch of "tar" failed: the PowerPC architecture is no longer supported." The Archive utility gives a similar error.
> 
> Is there another way to untar this file, or do I need to do this a different way for my computer ?.
> 
> Thanks,
> Helen.
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