I guess I'll have to take your word for it as there is nothing in what you mention that verifies this statement. rpm -ql tar will not verify that any files are actually there, just that they got installed at some point.
Did you verify /bin/tar was actually there before you did the yum localinstall? Perhaps a colleague playing a prank on you? Or an accidental removal while using mc without confirmation on delete enabled?
Since both x86_64 packages *and* i386 packages seem to be missing /bin/tar I doubt this is a multi arch issue.
# yum update Loaded plugins: downloadonly, fastestmirror, rhnplugin Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile Setting up Update Process Resolving Dependencies --> Running transaction check
<snip>
---> Package tar.x86_64 2:1.15.1-32.el5_8 set to be updated --> Processing Dependency: /bin/tar for package: redhat-lsb --> Finished Dependency Resolution redhat-lsb-4.0-2.1.4.el5.x86_64 from installed has depsolving problems --> Missing Dependency: /bin/tar is needed by package redhat-lsb-4.0-2.1.4.el5.x86_64 (installed) Error: Missing Dependency: /bin/tar is needed by package redhat-lsb-4.0-2.1.4.el5.x86_64 (installed) You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem You could try running: package-cleanup --problems package-cleanup --dupes rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest
# rpm -ql tar | grep bin /bin/gtar /bin/tar
# ll /bin/tar -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 230464 Mar 31 2010 /bin/tar
# rpm -q tar tar-1.15.1-30.el5
# rpm -ivh http://vault.centos.org/5.7/os/i386/CentOS/tar-1.15.1-30.el5.i386.rpm Retrieving http://vault.centos.org/5.7/os/i386/CentOS/tar-1.15.1-30.el5.i386.rpm Preparing... ########################################### [100%] 1:tar ########################################### [100%]
# yum update Loaded plugins: downloadonly, fastestmirror, rhnplugin Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile Setting up Update Process Resolving Dependencies --> Running transaction check
<big snip>
Transaction Summary ================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================= Install 4 Package(s) Upgrade 263 Package(s) Remove 2 Package(s) Reinstall 0 Package(s) Downgrade 0 Package(s)
Total download size: 417 M Is this ok [y/N]:
So tar really really is there but it only starts working when the i386 package is put onto the system, even though this is a x86_64 box
thanks