FreeBSD: Can't install Python 2.7

Question

I can't seem to be able to install Python 2.7 on my FreeBSD system. Here is some info:

# portsnap update
Ports tree is already up to date.

Version:

# uname -r
7.1-RELEASE

Installation:

# cd /usr/ports/lang/python27/
# make
===>  Found saved configuration for python27-2.7.5_1
=> Python-2.7.5.tar.xz doesn't seem to exist in /usr/ports/distfiles/python.
=> Attempting to fetch ftp://ftp.lv.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/distfiles/python/Python-2.7.5.tar.xz
Python-2.7.5.tar.xz                           100% of    9 MB  159 kBps 00m00s
===> Fetching all distfiles required by python27-2.7.5_1 for building
===>  Extracting for python27-2.7.5_1
=> SHA256 Checksum OK for python/Python-2.7.5.tar.xz.
===>   python27-2.7.5_1 depends on file: /usr/local/bin/xz - found
tar: Unrecognized archive format: Inappropriate file type or format
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors.
*** Error code 1

Stop in /usr/ports/lang/python27.
*** Error code 1

Stop in /usr/ports/lang/python27.

Any help is highly appreciated.

Answer 1

Most likely a symptom of an obsolete release. Version 7 has an older tar package that cannot handle the .xz extension. A work around can be achieved by installing libarchive from ports and then setting libarchives tar to the default tar binary by adding TAR=/usr/local/bin/bsdtar in /etc/make.conf or by symlinking to the bsdtar.