MetaLib Service Pack installation fails with error message "Segmentation Fault"

• Article Type: General
• Product: MetaLib

Problem Symptoms:
(1)
After starting the download of the MetaLib Service Pack with the utility util_sp_2 one receives an e-mail with the following text:

-------------------------------
Dear Customer,
The METALIB Service Pack download failed
[...] METALIB 4 copy 1
Please see ftp logs in /exlibris/metalib/m4_1/alephm/scratch/sp

Error message is:
Extracting SP package...
Segmentation Fault
Error extracting SP files: Some files were not extracted or may be corrupt Please check sp.extract.log
-------------------------------

The file $alephm_scratch/sp/sp_check.stat includes the second part of the e-mail text above with the actual error message (Segmentation Fault).


(2)
When tying to extract the MetaLib Service Pack manually as UNIX user metalib one receives the same error message:

$ tar xzf METALIB-4.5.5-ServicePackItem-1-818.tar.gz
Segmentation fault

Cause:
When one enters the command "tar" as UNIX user metalib, the file $metalib_dev/product/bin/tar is executed.
This file is actually a symbolic link to the file /exlibris/product/bin/tar
which in turn is a symbolic link to the executable file /exlibris/product/util/tar.

The executable file /exlibris/product/util/tar has version GNU tar 1.26.
This file seems to have a bug which causes the error "Segmentation fault".

Resolution:
Use GNU tar 1.15.1 instead of GNU tar 1.26.

(1)
Change the target of the symbolic link /exlibris/product/bin/tar

from:
/exlibris/product/util/tar

to:
/exlibris/product/tar-1.15.1/bin/tar


(2)
Verify that the command "tar" uses GNU tar 1.15.1:

$ tar --version
tar (GNU tar) 1.15.1


(3)
Start the installation of the MetaLib Service Pack again.

Category: Installation & Upgrades (ML) - MetaLib

Subject: Service Pack (ML) - MetaLib

• Article last edited: 7/16/2014