(a) tar loops indefinitely if sparse file actually stored into archive gets truncated in the middle of hole (b) tar loops indefinitely if user stored sparse file into archive (with -S) and the archive got truncated after that — performing archive comparison (by --diff, --compare) loops indefinitely after file truncation Reported upstream by François Ouellet: http://www.mail-archive.com/bug-tar@gnu.org/msg04432.html
tar-1.26-31.fc20 has been submitted as an update for Fedora 20. https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/tar-1.26-31.fc20
Package tar-1.26-31.fc20: * should fix your issue, * was pushed to the Fedora 20 testing repository, * should be available at your local mirror within two days. Update it with: # su -c 'yum update --enablerepo=updates-testing tar-1.26-31.fc20' as soon as you are able to. Please go to the following url: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2014-4716/tar-1.26-31.fc20 then log in and leave karma (feedback).
tar-1.26-31.fc20 has been pushed to the Fedora 20 stable repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.