Hi John, I can contribute some more problems :-) The test-case I'm using is this: ftp://ftp.gnus.org/pub/gnus/pgnus-0.69.tar.gz The XEmacs I'm using is (emacs-version) "XEmacs 21.0 \"Pyrenean63\" [Lucid] (i386-pc-win32) of Sat Feb 06 1999 on ZJ75T" running on WinNT4sp3. After downloading the file with Netscape Navigator 4.08 (making sure WinNT doesn't save the file as pgnus-0.69_tar.gz but rather as pgnus-0.69.tar.gz) I see these problems: Hitting e runs the command dired-find-file on the file leads this (M-x show-message-log): parsing tar file... parsing tar file...0% parsing tar file...0% +‡¼Ó\u2Ímׂ21#Ñd!¥›Ä(>³$lào"¸‚\2vtB¬!ÙºfÓLÎÊR³_âl·×°óÉ$‘3LÖv‚¾±Àd 1‰‘aÞb¾ý:?èZ3¯ÞD has size -740605235 - corrupted. After uncompressing the file with Z runs the command dired-do-compress I can open pgnus-0.69.tar just fine with e runs the command dired-find-file and see all the files in the tar. However, when I first saved as pgnus-0.69_tar.gz, uncompressed to pgnus-0.69_tar extended auto-mode-alist's tar regexp from "\\.\\(tar\\|tgz\\|tar\\.gz\\)\\'" to "\\.\\(tar\\|tgz\\|tar\\.gz\\)\\'\\|_tar$" I could only see the first two tar entries when I opened pgnus-0.69_tar: drwxrwxr-x larsi/larsi 0 Jan 03 14:37 pgnus-0.69/ -rw-rw-r-- larsi/larsi 2063 Nov 19 1998 pgnus-0.69/make.bat There where no errors. Regards, Adrian John> In reviewing the few recent notes on tar-mode problems, I John> thought that I'd try a few experiments and post the results. John> I'm using XEmacs 21.0-b63 on an SGI O2 running IRIX 6.5 John> under X11R6.3, having built using SGI's cc. John> Regardless of whether '-vanilla' is used or not, or whether John> I specifically (require 'crypt) and (require 'tar-mode) the John> following sequence of events occurs: John> 1) parsing tar file ... (gets through a few percent) John> 2) File mode specification error: (error "<long binary garbage> John> OR John> <binary garbage> John> I'm prepared to dig a deeper into this, but can't make any John> guarantees as to when I'll get to it. Any suggestions in John> the meantime would be appreciated. As a start, I'll John> probably step through some of the following alternative John> build choices in a grey-code ordering: John> 1) optimizations on/off (this build: on) John> 2) --gung-ho on/off (this build: on) John> 3) gcc instead of cc (this build: SGI cc) John> More information as it becomes available. John> (FWIW, I'm using the Feb 2 xemacs-sumo packages John> distribution.) John> -- John -- Adrian Aichner Teradyne GmbH, European Design Center Integra Test Division Telephone +49/89/41861(0)-208 Dingolfinger Strasse 2 Fax +49/89/41861-217 (What is a Fax?) D-81673 MUENCHEN E-mail adrian.aichner(a)teradyne.com