Tar not available via web hosting

Hello,

I’ve been able to upgrade a OJS installation to most recent version, and everything worked fine until I was almost done today, and was trying to upgrade the plugins. Then I discovered: I can’t use the tar command (there is no path available for me to use) on my web hosting. It is a little late in the game to start changing around the web hosting. So I decided to upload the plugins manually. However, after doing so, it’s impossible for me to install the files, as the system still asks for me to Upgrade in the admin interface. I checked the Chrome Developer Tools and the upgrade plugin PHP script generates a HTTP 500.

Is there a way to bypass this and install the plugins without having to go through the admin interface?

/Kalle

Tar is usually present on all servers. You can ask you hosting company anyway.
Error 500 is message when application asks server something to do but server is not able to do that. Which version of PHP you do have and which version of OJS?