Tar files made in macOS generate "xattr" errors when expanded in Linux
a day ago
- #macos
- #tar
- #linux
- The author describes a workflow of creating tarballs (tar.gz) on macOS and deploying them to Linux servers.
- When extracting tar.gz files on Linux, warnings or errors appear due to macOS's BSD tar adding extra files (like ._ files) and extended attributes.
- These warnings are about 'unknown extended header keywords' related to macOS-specific metadata (e.g., quarantine, lastuseddate).
- Three solutions are presented: using --no-xattrs or --disable-copyfile options with BSD tar, or installing GNU tar to replace BSD tar permanently.
- Installing GNU tar via Homebrew and updating PATH ensures clean tar creation without extra macOS attributes.