--- /dev/null
+#!/bin/sh
+
+candidate="$1"
+
+tar=`which $candidate`
+if [ ! -x "$tar" ]; then
+ tar=`which tar`
+ if [ ! -x "$tar" ]; then
+ # echo nothing: no suitable tar found
+ exit 1
+ fi
+fi
+
+# Output of 'tar --version' examples:
+# tar (GNU tar) 1.15.1
+# tar (GNU tar) 1.25
+# bsdtar 2.8.3 - libarchive 2.8.3
+version=`$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`
+version_bsd=`$tar --version | grep 'bsdtar'`
+if [ ! -z "${version_bsd}" ] ; then
+ # mark as invalid version - not all command line options are available
+ major=0
+ minor=0
+fi
+
+# 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