"tar" missed a bunch of files

Something totally messed up my Mac necessitating a re-install. In fact, it was so bad that I was forced to boot into the firmware re-install over the net. Fortunately, I saw the Terminal app before erasing the disk so I got to keep my home directory -- all 135GB of it, though that was mostly aggressive caching by Safari and Chrome. (Sheesh! If I'd only known...) Anyway, I tarred it all off to a USB drive, reformatted the main disk and booted into the new install. Cool. Except: Every. File. With. The. EXE. Bit. Was. Omitted.

SO, I don't know how to get Apple's ear, but WHAT IN HECK WERE YOU THINKING, APPLE?

It turns out that the build tools were updated and I can't re-build my password manager. Too clever, Apple.