diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/tar/HadoopTar.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/tar/HadoopTar.java
index f3bd5855c291783c74ccbdb3cc30f3368c13b697..38294b3a459392ab103d59abeeca4447dd329fdb 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/tar/HadoopTar.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/tar/HadoopTar.java
@@ -264,6 +264,7 @@ public class HadoopTar extends Configured implements Tool {
     TarOutputStream tos = new TarOutputStream(os);
     // GNU tar extensions are used to store long file names in the archive.
     try {
+      tos.setBigNumberMode(TarOutputStream.BIGNUMBER_POSIX);
       tos.setLongFileMode(TarOutputStream.LONGFILE_GNU);
       for (Path path : getTopSrcPaths(curDirPath, args, keepAbsolutePath ) ) {
         archive(tos, curDirPath, path, keepAbsolutePath, optionVerbose );