I am trying to install a compressed package ending in .tar.gz and I am getting an error saying that it is not in the right format,

Question

I am new to Ubuntu and after doing some research I still can't figure what I am doing wrong. I am downloading the a package ending in .tar.gz,then I when I try to use:

tar -xvf matlab_r2011b.tar.gz

I get the following error:

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

What am I doing wrong?

Probably your downloaded `matlab_r2011b.tar.gz` is bad file , if it provides md5sum ,cross-check for it from download source. — atenz, Jun 28 '12 at 08:41
https://askubuntu.com/questions/877292/gzip-stdin-not-in-gzip-format — dhiraka, Aug 14 '17 at 02:34

James Henstridge · Answer 1 · 2012-06-28T09:10:36.847

4

Try checking the file type with the following command:

file matlab_r2011b.tar.gz

If it tells you that it is a tar archive rather than gzip compressed data, then it is possible that the file got decompressed while being downloaded (possibly due to a faulty web server configuration on the other end). If that is the case, just rename the archive and try again:

mv matlab_r2011b.tar.gz matlab_r2011b.tar
tar xvf matlab_r2011b.tar

edited Jun 28 '12 at 09:10

answered Jun 28 '12 at 09:01

James Henstridge

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`tar` hasn't required the decompression options (`-z`/`-j`) for a while now; it seems to autodetect. – Jeremy Kerr Jun 28 '12 at 09:09
Fair enough. I've cut that part from the answer. – James Henstridge Jun 28 '12 at 09:10

I am trying to install a compressed package ending in .tar.gz and I am getting an error saying that it is not in the right format,

1 Answers1