These tar files are in pax(1) format.  This file format is readable by GNU tar
version 1.14 or higher, but if you are using standard UNIX tar, you should use 
pax to extract them:

  pax -rv < upload.tar

Otherwise, files with long names will not be extracted correctly.

The exception is the dumps for commons and meta from 2005-05-28, which are in
POSIX tar format and do not have correct long filenames.  This will be
corrected in the next dump.

Please report problems with these dumps to wikitech-l@wikimedia.org.

Notes for Linux users
=====================

It seems that the Linux version of pax which identifies itself as
"pax (pax) 3.0" cannot handle POSIX format pax archives.  You should use GNU
tar version 1.14 or higher instead of this pax.

Notes for Windows users
=======================

Some users have reported that WinRar cannot extract these archives. At the
moment, the suggested method to extract these archives on Windows is to use
a Windows version of GNU tar.  Alternatively, this utility:

  http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/libarchive.htm

should be able to extract them correctly, although it's untested (thanks to
Rowan Collins for the link).