#!/bin/sh candidate="$1" tar=`which $candidate` if [ ! -x "$tar" ]; then tar=`which tar` if [ ! -x "$tar" ]; then # echo nothing: no suitable tar found exit 1 fi fi # Output of 'tar --version' examples: # tar (GNU tar) 1.15.1 # tar (GNU tar) 1.25 version=`$tar --version | head -n 1 | sed 's/^.*\s\([0-9]\+\.\S\+\).*$/\1/'` major=`echo "$version" | cut -d. -f1` minor=`echo "$version" | cut -d. -f2` bugfix=`echo "$version" | cut -d. -f3` # Minimal version = 1.17 (previous versions do not correctly unpack archives # containing hard-links if the --strip-components option is used). major_min=1 minor_min=17 if [ $major -gt $major_min ]; then echo $tar else if [ $major -eq $major_min -a $minor -ge $minor_min ]; then echo $tar else # echo nothing: no suitable tar found exit 1 fi fi