tar: Archive contains obsolescent base-64 headers
I was trying to install Ghostscript on my MediaTemple (mt) Linux server but I kept getting the following error:
tar: This does not look like a tar archive tar: Skipping to next header tar: Archive contains obsolescent base-64 headers tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
The quick fix around this is to type the following:
gzip -d filename.tar.gz
and then
tar -xf filename.tar
This should extract the file without errors.
Peace

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and what i should do if the same error appears when i
$ tar xf *.tar
I want to extract mysql-5.0.21.tar.gz on linux server for installtion
but, I unable to extract. I tried to apply tar, gzip, gunzip, gtar
but not able to fix the problem
here is the error when I tried with gtar and same error occurs with tar also
root@vps home
[mysql-5.0.21/]# gtar zxvf mysql-5.0.21.tar.gz
mysql-5.0.21/bdb/
mysql-5.0.21/bdb/Makefile.in
mysql-5.0.21/bdb/btree/
mysql-5.0.21/bdb/btree/bt_reclaim.c
mysql-5.0.21/bdb/btree/bt_stat.c
mysql-5.0.21/bdb/btree/bt_delete.c
mysql-5.0.21/bdb/btree/bt_rec.c
mysql-5.0.21/bdb/btree/bt_compare.c
mysql-5.0.21/bdb/btree/bt_cursor.c
mysql-5.0.21/bdb/btree/bt_search.c
gtar: Skipping to next header
ysql-5.0.21/bdb/bttre/bt_sspli.c
gtar: Skipping to next header
gtar: Archive contains obsolescent base-64 headers
gzip: stdin: invalid compressed data–crc error
gzip: stdin: invalid compressed data–length error
gtar: Child returned status 1
gtar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
problem solved:
find sites from where you can directly download files using
wget url
It will 100% work