'gzip: stdin: not in gzip format tar: Child returned status 1 tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

I have a Bash script that creates a .tar.gz file, encrypts, and then sends it to a drive. However, I cannot open the .tar.gz file afterwards. Here is my process...

Bash script that encrypts.

#!/bin/sh

# Tar the automysqlbackup directory
tar -zcf "red-backup-$(date '+%Y-%m-%d').tar.gz" /var/lib/automysqlbackup/

# Encrypt the tar file
openssl aes-256-cbc -a -salt -in "red-backup-$(date '+%Y-%m-%d').tar.gz" -out "red-backup-$(date '+%Y-%m-%d').tar.gz.enc" -pass 'pass:MySecretPWD'

# Remove the original tar file
rm -rf "red-backup-$(date '+%Y-%m-%d').tar.gz"

# Upload to Google Drive
gdrive upload --file "red-backup-$(date '+%Y-%m-%d').tar.gz.enc" -p "jofhriout849uioejfoiu09"

Then I download the file and use

sudo openssl aes-256-cbc -e -in red-backup-2016-09-22.tar.gz.enc -out red-backup-2016-09-22.tar.gz

I then enter the passphrase for my file twice and I now get a file called

red-backup-2016-09-22.tar.gz

When I then try

sudo tar -zxvf red-backup-2016-09-22.tar.gz

I get

gzip: stdin: not in gzip format
tar: Child returned status 1
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

I have also tried renaming the file .tar and also tried

sudo tar xvf red-backup-2016-09-22.tar.gz

and

sudo tar xvf red-backup-2016-09-22.tar

tar: This does not look like a tar archive
tar: Skipping to next header
tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors

Where am I going wrong?

Solution 1:^[1]

This means the file isn't really a gzipped tar file -- or any kind of gzipped file -- in spite of being named like one.

When you download a file with wget, check for indications like Length: unspecified [text/html] which shows it is plain text (text) and that it is intended to be interpreted as html. Check the wget output below -

wget --no-cookies --no-check-certificate --header "Cookie: gpw_e24=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oracle.com%2F; oraclelicense=accept-securebackup-cookie" "http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/8u144-b01/090f390dda5b47b9b721c7dfaa008135/jdk-8u144-linux-x64.tar.gz"

--2017-10-12 12:39:40--  http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/8u144-b01/090f390dda5b47b9b721c7dfaa008135/jdk-8u144-linux-x64.tar.gz
Resolving download.oracle.com (download.oracle.com)... 23.72.136.27, 23.72.136.67
Connecting to download.oracle.com (download.oracle.com)|23.72.136.27|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Not Allowed
Location: http://XXXX/FAQs/URLFiltering/ProxyWarning.html [following]
--2017-10-12 12:39:40--  http://XXXX/FAQs/URLFiltering/ProxyWarning.html
Resolving XXXX (XXXXX)... XXX.XX.XX.XXX
Connecting to XXXX (XXXX)|XXX.XX.XX.XXX|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 17121 (17K) [text/html]
Saving to: ‘jdk-8u144-linux-x64.tar.gz’

100%[=========================================================================================================================================================================>] 17,121      --.-K/s   in 0.05s

2017-10-12 12:39:40 (349 KB/s) - ‘jdk-8u144-linux-x64.tar.gz’ saved [17121/17121]

This sort of confirms that you haven't received a gzip file.

For a correct file, the wget output will show something like Length: 185515842 (177M) [application/x-gzip] as shown in the below output -

wget --no-cookies --no-check-certificate --header "Cookie: gpw_e24=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oracle.com%2F; oraclelicense=accept-securebackup-cookie" "http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/8u144-b01/090f390dda5b47b9b721c7dfaa008135/jdk-8u144-linux-x64.tar.gz"

--2017-10-12 12:50:06--  http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/8u144-b01/090f390dda5b47b9b721c7dfaa008135/jdk-8u144-linux-x64.tar.gz
Resolving download.oracle.com (download.oracle.com)... XX.XXX.XX.XX, XX.XX.XXX.XX
Connecting to download.oracle.com (download.oracle.com)|XX.XX.XXX.XX|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Moved Temporarily
Location: https://edelivery.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/8u144-b01/090f390dda5b47b9b721c7dfaa008135/jdk-8u144-linux-x64.tar.gz [following]
--2017-10-12 12:50:06--  https://edelivery.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/8u144-b01/090f390dda5b47b9b721c7dfaa008135/jdk-8u144-linux-x64.tar.gz
Resolving edelivery.oracle.com (edelivery.oracle.com)... XXX.XX.XXX.XX, 2600:1404:16:188::2d3e, 2600:1404:16:180::2d3e
Connecting to edelivery.oracle.com (edelivery.oracle.com)|XXX.XX.XX.XXX|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Moved Temporarily
Location: http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/8u144-b01/090f390dda5b47b9b721c7dfaa008135/jdk-8u144-linux-x64.tar.gz?AuthParam=1507827127_f44251ebbb44c6e61e7f202677f94afd [following]
--2017-10-12 12:50:07--  http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/8u144-b01/090f390dda5b47b9b721c7dfaa008135/jdk-8u144-linux-x64.tar.gz?AuthParam=1507827127_f44251ebbb44c6e61
Connecting to download.oracle.com (download.oracle.com)|XX.XX.XXX.XX|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 185515842 (177M) [application/x-gzip]
Saving to: ‘jdk-8u144-linux-x64.tar.gz’

100%[=========================================================================================================================================================================>] 185,515,842 6.60MB/s   in 28s

2017-10-12 12:50:34 (6.43 MB/s) - ‘jdk-8u144-linux-x64.tar.gz’ saved [185515842/185515842]

The above shows a correct gzip application file has been downloaded.

You can also file, head, less, view utilities to check the file. For example, an HTML file would give the below output -

head jdk-8u144-linux-x64.tar.gz

Output:

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
    <link href="/css/print.css" rel="stylesheet" media="print">
    <link href="/css/main.css" rel="stylesheet" media="screen">
    <link href="/css/font-awesome.min.css" rel="stylesheet">

The above shows it is indeed an HTML page which we are trying to unzip/untar - something that won't work. If it was indeed a correct zip file (binary in nature) the output of head would have produced garbage - something like below -

head jdk-8u144-linux-x64.tar.gz

Output:

x?rY?[ms?F???????t?l???DR??????j
                                       $?$,`0?h?_????/??=?@Q?w+???*?Hbfz?{?~?{?i?x??k?????}????z???w????g?????{???;{s????w?????7?N????i?
?????}
?¿g????????????7??s??????î??????~i??j?/??????#???=??=>???{}??|?????????????3???X???]9??????u?????%??<^)?H?8?F?R?t?o?L?u??S%?ds5?2_EZn?t^??
                                                                                                                                                 ?N3??(??<??|'?q???R?N?gq?Uv!???p???rL??M??u??.?Q?5?T??BNw?!$??<>?7G'$?,Mt4WY?Gi"?=??p?)?VIN3????\ek??0??G
                                            ?<L?c???t-???2???G:?ia??I?<?g3???d?H????[2`?<I?A?6?W??<??C???????h??A0QL?2?4?-*
?x?????t%t1??f?>+A??,Lr?
                        ?Fe:MBH????
C?Q?r?S??<M?b?<,5???@???s???c??sp?f?=g?????k???4?}??kh)?¹Z??#d?*{???-?.N?)?e??s:?H(VQ??3*?$2???r?v?"o?_??!A???????B?l=A?|??@??0??1??5??4g?
?
???Se????H[2?????t??5?Df????$1???b$? h?Op????!Lvb!p??b?8^?Y???n?
                                                                          O??????|??lW?lu??*?N?M???
?/?^0~?~?#??q????????K??;?d???aw4?????'?~?7??ky?o?????????t?'k??f????!vo???'o???     ?.?Pn\?
               ?+??K"FA{????n2????v??!/Ok??r4?c5?x$'?.?&w?!?%??o??????2???i
                                                                               ?a0??Ag?d????GH)G7~?g???b??%?b??rt?m~?    ?????t0??    <????????????5?q?t??K(??+Z<??=???:1?\?x?p=t?`??G@F??    i?????p8?????H.???dMLE??e[?`?'n??*h[??;?0w'??6A??M?x?fpeB>&???MO???????`?@á/?"?????(??^???n??=????5??@?Mx??d:\YAn???]|?w>??S??FA9?J?k!?@?

Try downloading from the official site and check if their download links have changed. Also check your proxy settings and make sure you have the right proxies enabled to download/wget it from the correct source.

Solution 2:^[2]

First check the type of compression using the file command:

file name_name.tgz

Output: If the output is " XZ compressed data", then use tar xf <archive name> to unzip the file, e.g.

tar xf archive.tar.xz
tar xf archive.tar.gz
tar xf archive.tar
tar xf archive.tgz

Solution 3:^[3]

Just click first on that link and go to the HTML page where actual downloads or mirrors are.

It's really misleading to have a full link which ends in .tgz when it actually leads to an HTML page where the real download links are.

I had this problem downloading Apache Spark and Wget-ing it into Ubuntu.

https://spark.apache.org/downloads.html

Solution 4:^[4]

Initially, check the type of compression with the below command:

`file <file_name>`

If the output is a POSIX compressed file, use the below command to uncompress:

`tar xvf <file_name>`

Solution 5:^[5]

Sometimes the .gz extension is wrongfully appended to the filename.

Run file foo.csv.gz to know the actual file type.
Rename the file to foo.csv or whatever the actual file type is.

Solution 6:^[6]

Add "-O file.tgz" or "-O file.tar.gz" at the end of the wget command and extract "file.tgz" or "file.tar.gz".

Here is the sample code for Google Colaboratory:

!wget -q  --trust-server-names  https://downloads.apache.org/spark/spark-3.0.0/spark-3.0.0-bin-hadoop2.7.tgz  -O file.tgz
print("Download completed successfully !!!")
!tar zxvf  file.tgz

Note: Please ensure that the http path for tgz is valid and the file is not corrupted.

Solution 7:^[7]

cd /Whatever/Directory/Path/The/File/Is/In

chmod +x xampp-linux-x64-7.0.6-0-installer.run

sudo ./xampp-linux-x64-7.0.6-0-installer.run

It works.

For more information, refer to Installing XAMPP on Linux Mint.

Solution 8:^[8]

unxz worked for me:

sudo unxz fileName.xz

Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution	Source
Solution 1	Peter Mortensen
Solution 2	Peter Mortensen
Solution 3	Peter Mortensen
Solution 4	Peter Mortensen
Solution 5	P-S
Solution 6	Peter Mortensen
Solution 7	Peter Mortensen
Solution 8	Peter Mortensen

'gzip: stdin: not in gzip format tar: Child returned status 1 tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

Solution 1:[1]

Solution 2:[2]

Solution 3:[3]

Solution 4:[4]

Solution 5:[5]

Solution 6:[6]

Solution 7:[7]

Solution 8:[8]