Skip to content

tarfile: Degenerate TARs with global PAX headers are not handled correctly #149578

Open

Description

@spbnick

Bug report

Bug description:

It appears that tarfile.TarFile fails opening PAX TAR files if the only thing they contain is the global headers, no matter if created with the module or with the tar tool. The exception raised is tarfile.ReadError: end of file header. The tar executable handles those files perfectly.

Reproducer

import subprocess
import traceback
import tarfile
import sys
import io

#
# Non-empty Python-created files work
#
filename = "non_empty_python.tar"
with tarfile.TarFile(filename,
                     mode="w",
                     format=tarfile.PAX_FORMAT,
                     pax_headers=dict(abc="def")
) as t:
    t.addfile(tarfile.TarInfo("ghi.txt"), io.BytesIO(b"ghi"))
subprocess.check_call(["tar", "tf", filename],
                      stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL)
with tarfile.TarFile(filename, mode="a"):
    pass

#
# Non-empty tar-created files work
#
filename = "non_empty_tar.tar"
subprocess.check_call(["/bin/bash", "-c", f"""
    tar -c -H pax --pax-option='foo=bar' -f {filename} \
        -P --transform 's/.*/ghi.txt/' <(echo ghi)
"""])
subprocess.check_call(["tar", "tf", filename],
                      stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL)
with tarfile.TarFile(filename, mode="a"):
    pass

#
# Empty Python-created files break
#
filename = "empty_python.tar"
with tarfile.TarFile(filename,
                     mode="w",
                     format=tarfile.PAX_FORMAT,
                     pax_headers=dict(abc="def")
) as t:
    pass
subprocess.check_call(["tar", "tf", filename],
                      stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL)
try:
    with tarfile.TarFile(filename, mode="a"):
        pass
except Exception:
    print(f"Opening empty Python-created PAX TAR {filename!r} failed:",
          file=sys.stderr)
    print(traceback.format_exc(), file=sys.stderr)

#
# Empty tar-created files break
#
filename = "empty_tar.tar"
subprocess.check_call(["/bin/bash", "-c", f"""
    tar -c -H pax --pax-option='foo=bar' -f {filename} \
        --files-from=/dev/null
"""])
subprocess.check_call(["tar", "tf", filename],
                      stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL)
try:
    with tarfile.TarFile(filename, mode="a"):
        pass
except Exception:
    print(f"Opening empty tar-created PAX TAR {filename!r} failed:",
          file=sys.stderr)
    print(traceback.format_exc(), file=sys.stderr)

CPython versions tested on:

3.15

Operating systems tested on:

Linux

Linked PRs

Activity

  1. added
    type-bugAn unexpected behavior, bug, or error
    on May 8, 2026
  2. added
    stdlibStandard Library Python modules in the Lib/ directory
    on May 8, 2026
  3. changed the title [-]tarfile: Failed opening empty PAX TAR with global headers[/-] [+]tarfile: Degenerate TARs with global PAX headers are not handled correctly[/+] on May 13, 2026
  4. added a commit that references this issue on Sep 1, 2026
  5. added a commit that references this issue on Sep 12, 2026
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

No one assigned

    Labels

    stdlibStandard Library Python modules in the Lib/ directorytype-bugAn unexpected behavior, bug, or error

    Projects

    Milestone

    No milestone

    Relationships

    None yet

    Development

    No branches or pull requests

    Issue actions