When I try to install the “Custom Locale Plugin”, I get the error: The tar command is not available. ...
PHP error log tells me, that: PHP Warning: file_exists(): open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/bin/tar) is not within the allowed path(s): ([[diverse paths here]]) in /.../lib/pkp/classes/plugins/PluginHelper.inc.php](http://.../lib/pkp/classes/plugins/PluginHelper.inc.php) on line 54
In the open_basedir paths /bin is missing.
Since we’re on a hosted server (hosting provider), I contacted the sysadmin, who (after some testing with me) told me, that the standard path to tar is /bin/tar and OJS seems to be incompatible with their configuration, and we couldn’t change this.
How can I install plugins, without tar? Can I untar locally and upload via FTP to the plugins directory?
Yes, you can untar locally and then FTP. You’ll still need to “install” the plugin if you do it that way, though since some plugins also have schemas that need to be created in the database.
Do you have shell access? OJS comes with a command line tool specifically for this purpose:
Where you’d replace the path to version.xml with the correct one for your plugin. If you don’t have access yourself, perhaps your systems admin can do this for you.