Vscode-remote-release: Remote-ssh fail tar unrecognized option "--strip_components"

[robertlugg]

Tried on Insiders?

yes, still a problem

Versions

Version: 1.38.0-insider (user setup)
Commit: 1c6e25b87e05a8429c986c59431be77467af9449
Date: 2019-08-16T09:47:47.248Z
Electron: 4.2.9
Chrome: 69.0.3497.128
Node.js: 10.11.0
V8: 6.9.427.31-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.17134

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Install vscode
2. Install Remote-ssh Extension
3. Connect to a Linux system with an old version of tar.
4. Examine connection log. Note output similar to:

[17:16:41.023] > Downloading with wget
> 
[17:16:43.213] > Download complete
> tar: unrecognized option '--strip-components'
> Try `tar --help' for more information.
> 

Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes/No

Yes, still fails with only the Remote-ssh extension installed

Commentary

The system default tar is 1.13.25 and the most recent install is 1.28 I am working in a corporate environment so have no option to "upgrade my linux distribution". I realize that 1.28 was released in 2014. I have downloaded and build 1.32 from sources and that does work.

I suspect this is because I'm running CentOS 7 which provides long term support, so they may be unwilling to stay recent with tar.

My suggestion would be to remove the argument and change the install script if that is possible.

I'm not sure a fix is worth your time, but I wanted to report. I think a fair number of enterprise users will hit this problem.

[roblourens]

Seen this before in https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-remote-release/issues/1163, surely we can avoid that flag...

[roblourens]

Pushed a fix, would appreciate if you download the nightly version of the extension and try it out tomorrow. About 17 hours after this post.

[aeschli]

Tested in code that --strip-components no longer present in nightly (but still in the official release)