When you distribute *.tar.gz files, it is better to set everything owned by root/root. So that it doesn't keep the user name and user ID on your system. Here is an example. tar -czvf github.tar.gz --owner=0 --group=0 github/ tar About the author Xuan Ngo is the founder of OpenWritings.net. He currently lives in Montreal, Canada. He loves to write about programming and open source subjects. View the discussion thread.