gnutar @1.29_0: breaks when LANG unset

[howarth.at.macports@…]

The gnutar 1.29 release causes 'gnutar -zxvf ', etc to fail when LANG is unset. This issue is discussed in the thread ​http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-tar/2016-09/msg00000.html

$ gnutar -zcvf test_data.tar.gz test_data
test_data/
test_data/.noe.tbl.swp
test_data/dihedral.tbl
test_data/file.nam
test_data/io.mc
test_data/noe.tbl
gnutar: test_data.tar.gz: Cannot write: Broken pipe
gnutar: Child died with signal 11
gnutar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

The failure backtraces as...

$ ulimit -c unlimited
$ gnutar -zcvf test_data.tar.gz test_data 
test_data/
test_data/.noe.tbl.swp
test_data/dihedral.tbl
test_data/file.nam
test_data/io.mc
test_data/noe.tbl
gnutar: test_data.tar.gz: Cannot write: Broken pipe
gnutar: Child died with signal 11
gnutar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
$ lldb -c /cores/core.21601 `which gnutar`
(lldb) target create "/opt/local/bin/gnutar" --core "/cores/core.21601"
warning: (x86_64) /cores/core.21601 load command 84 LC_SEGMENT_64 has a fileoff 
+ filesize (0x296fe000) that extends beyond the end of the file (0x296fd000), 
the segment will be truncated to match
Core file '/cores/core.21601' (x86_64) was loaded.
(lldb) bt
* thread #1: tid = 0x0000, 0x00007fff94ebb6d7 
libdispatch.dylib`_dispatch_queue_push_queue + 463, stop reason = signal SIGSTOP
  * frame #0: 0x00007fff94ebb6d7 libdispatch.dylib`_dispatch_queue_push_queue + 
463
    frame #1: 0x00007fff7478c4d0 libdispatch.dylib`_OS_dispatch_mach_vtable + 48
    frame #2: 0x00007fff94eb9b06 
libdispatch.dylib`_dispatch_queue_wakeup_with_qos_slow + 126
    frame #3: 0x00007fff94ec013f libdispatch.dylib`_dispatch_mach_msg_send + 
1952
    frame #4: 0x00007fff94ebf8dc libdispatch.dylib`dispatch_mach_send + 262
    frame #5: 0x00007fff89448fc9 
libxpc.dylib`xpc_connection_send_message_with_reply + 131
    frame #6: 0x00007fff8e31ebdf CoreFoundation`__66-[CFPrefsSearchListSource 
generationCountFromListOfSources:count:]_block_invoke_2 + 143
    frame #7: 0x00007fff8e31ea0d CoreFoundation`_CFPrefsWithDaemonConnection + 
381
    frame #8: 0x00007fff8e31db96 CoreFoundation`__66-[CFPrefsSearchListSource 
generationCountFromListOfSources:count:]_block_invoke + 150
    frame #9: 0x00007fff8e31d933 CoreFoundation`-[CFPrefsSearchListSource 
generationCountFromListOfSources:count:] + 179
    frame #10: 0x00007fff8e31d214 CoreFoundation`-[CFPrefsSearchListSource 
alreadylocked_copyDictionary] + 324
    frame #11: 0x00007fff8e31ce5c CoreFoundation`-[CFPrefsSearchListSource 
alreadylocked_copyValueForKey:] + 60
    frame #12: 0x00007fff8e31cdec 
CoreFoundation`___CFPreferencesCopyAppValueWithContainer_block_invoke + 60
    frame #13: 0x00007fff8e314b10 CoreFoundation`+[CFPrefsSearchListSource 
withSearchListForIdentifier:container:perform:] + 608
    frame #14: 0x00007fff8e314867 
CoreFoundation`_CFPreferencesCopyAppValueWithContainer + 183
    frame #15: 0x00000001021a6538 
libintl.8.dylib`_nl_language_preferences_default + 70
    frame #16: 0x00000001021a462f libintl.8.dylib`libintl_dcigettext + 667
    frame #17: 0x00000001021491f2 gnutar`sys_child_open_for_compress + 125
    frame #18: 0x000000010213011f gnutar`open_archive + 603
    frame #19: 0x00000001021355ab gnutar`create_archive + 67
    frame #20: 0x000000010214b494 gnutar`main + 3510
    frame #21: 0x00007fff895605ad libdyld.dylib`start + 1
    frame #22: 0x00007fff895605ad libdyld.dylib`start + 1
(lldb)

The offending commit in tar git causing this is...

commit 589ba77faf60e4632771d80e2b25d9e3778d4a3f
Author: Sergey Poznyakoff <address@hidden>
Date:   Sat Dec 5 16:54:26 2015 +0200

    Catch compressor execution errors.
    
    * src/misc.c (write_fatal_details): Move to buffer.c
    * src/buffer.c (write_fatal_details): Close the archive and wait for
    the compressor program to terminate in order to catch eventual execution
    errors.
    * src/system.c (sys_child_open_for_compress): Ignore SIGPIPE so tar will
    not silently terminate when unable to write to the compressor.
    * tests/comperr.at: New file.
    * tests/Makefile.am: Add comperr.at
    * tests/testsuite.at: Include comperr.at

In particular, the change....

diff --git a/src/system.c b/src/system.c
index 9414233..dc0b2b0 100644
--- a/src/system.c
+++ b/src/system.c
@@ -330,6 +330,7 @@ sys_child_open_for_compress (void)
   pid_t grandchild_pid;
   pid_t child_pid;
 
+  signal (SIGPIPE, SIG_IGN);
   xpipe (parent_pipe);
   child_pid = xfork ();

doesn't seem to play well with the threading in the CoreFoundation framework (at least when LANG is unset).

A work-around would be to build gnutar 1.29 with --disable-nls to avoid the indirect linkage on the CoreFoundation framework through libintl or epoching back to gnutar 1.28.