[COMPRESS-206] TarArchiveOutputStream sometimes writes garbage beyond the end of the archive

• Type: Bug
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 1.0, 1.4.1
• Fix Version/s: 1.5
• Component/s: Compressors

Environment

Linux x86

• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Peter De Maeyer
• Created: 24/Oct/12 10:09
• Updated: 20/Jan/13 19:11
• Resolved: 20/Jan/13 19:11

Description

For some combinations of file lengths, the archive created by TarArchiveOutputStream writes garbage beyond the end of the TAR stream. TarArchiveInputStream can still read the stream without problems, but it does not read beyond the garbage. This is problematic for my use case because I write a checksum after the TAR content. If I then try to read the checksum back, I read garbage instead.

Functional impact:

• TarArchiveInputStream is asymmetrical with respect to TarArchiveOutputStream, in the sense that TarArchiveInputStream does not read everything that was written by TarArchiveOutputStream.
• The content is unnecessarily large. The garbage is totally unnecessarily large: ~10K overhead compared to Linux command-line tar.

This symptom is remarkably similar to #COMPRESS-81, which is supposedly fixed since 1.1. Except for the fact that this issue still exists... I've tested this with 1.0 and 1.4.1.