tar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular file

Trying to install Server Express on Solaris gives an error message as follows:

Enter the absolute path to the directory where Server Express should be installed.
   Press return to use (/opt/microfocus/cobol)
/home/support/products/opt/microfocus/cobol
 
Installation directory /home/support/products/opt/microfocus/cobol does not exist.
Do you want to create it? (y/n): y
 
Installing into /home/support/products/opt/microfocus/cobol
 
Do you want to continue? (y/n): y
Copying files. This can take several minutes. Please wait....
tar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular file
tar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular file
tar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular file
tar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular file
tar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular file
tar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular file
tar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular file
tar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular file
tar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular file
tar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular file
tar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular file
tar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular file
tar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular file
tar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular file
tar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular file
tar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular file
tar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular file
tar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular file
setup.023 - Failed to untar due to lack of disk space.
#
 
Even though the location that is being used has plenty of GB disk space so the error message is a generic message here.

For Solaris it is best to use gtar instead of the default tar on Solaris.

I was untarring a tar ball using Solaris tar and got a bunch of "tar: ././@LongLink: typeflag 'L' not recognized, converting to regular file" messages. Looks like it couldn't handle very long file names. The way out was to use the GNU tar. On Solaris10 /usr/sfw/bin/gtar is available as part of the SUNWgtar package.

Setup.sh uses tar as well, so we should make sure that gtar is used as first tar in PATH for the time of installation.

Notes: In this case you can create a symbolic link named “tar” to /usr/sfw/bin/gtar in some directory and then do:
export PATH=/some_directory:$PATH
and then execute setup.sh.

This way whenever setup.sh invokes “tar”, it would take gtar instead.