diff --git a/core/pom.xml b/core/pom.xml
index ed8e8cd308..a230835039 100644
--- a/core/pom.xml
+++ b/core/pom.xml
@@ -276,6 +276,11 @@ THE SOFTWARE.
       <artifactId>commons-beanutils</artifactId>
       <version>1.8.3</version>
     </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+        <groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
+        <artifactId>commons-compress</artifactId>
+        <version>1.9</version>
+    </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>javax.mail</groupId>
       <artifactId>mail</artifactId>
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/hudson/FilePath.java b/core/src/main/java/hudson/FilePath.java
index ca137d2e11..07fdc9d17c 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/hudson/FilePath.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/hudson/FilePath.java
@@ -33,7 +33,6 @@ import hudson.model.AbstractProject;
 import hudson.model.Computer;
 import hudson.model.Item;
 import hudson.model.TaskListener;
-import hudson.org.apache.tools.tar.TarInputStream;
 import hudson.os.PosixAPI;
 import hudson.os.PosixException;
 import hudson.remoting.Callable;
@@ -70,7 +69,6 @@ import org.apache.commons.io.input.CountingInputStream;
 import org.apache.tools.ant.DirectoryScanner;
 import org.apache.tools.ant.Project;
 import org.apache.tools.ant.types.FileSet;
-import org.apache.tools.tar.TarEntry;
 import org.apache.tools.zip.ZipEntry;
 import org.apache.tools.zip.ZipFile;
 import org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler;
@@ -120,6 +118,8 @@ import static hudson.Util.*;
 import javax.annotation.Nonnull;
 import javax.annotation.Nullable;
 import jenkins.security.MasterToSlaveCallable;
+import org.apache.commons.compress.archivers.tar.TarArchiveEntry;
+import org.apache.commons.compress.archivers.tar.TarArchiveInputStream;
 import org.jenkinsci.remoting.RoleChecker;
 import org.jenkinsci.remoting.RoleSensitive;
         
@@ -2268,12 +2268,15 @@ public final class FilePath implements Serializable {
 
     /**
      * Reads from a tar stream and stores obtained files to the base dir.
+     * @since TODO supports large files > 10 GB, migration to commons-compress
      */
     private void readFromTar(String name, File baseDir, InputStream in) throws IOException {
-        TarInputStream t = new TarInputStream(in);
+        TarArchiveInputStream t = new TarArchiveInputStream(in);
+        
+        // TarInputStream t = new TarInputStream(in);
         try {
-            TarEntry te;
-            while ((te = t.getNextEntry()) != null) {
+            TarArchiveEntry te;
+            while ((te = t.getNextTarEntry()) != null) {
                 File f = new File(baseDir,te.getName());
                 if(te.isDirectory()) {
                     mkdirs(f);
@@ -2282,8 +2285,7 @@ public final class FilePath implements Serializable {
                     if (parent != null) mkdirs(parent);
                     writing(f);
 
-                    byte linkFlag = (Byte) LINKFLAG_FIELD.get(te);
-                    if (linkFlag==TarEntry.LF_SYMLINK) {
+                    if (te.isSymbolicLink()) {
                         new FilePath(f).symlinkTo(te.getLinkName(), TaskListener.NULL);
                     } else {
                         IOUtils.copy(t,f);
@@ -2300,8 +2302,6 @@ public final class FilePath implements Serializable {
         } catch (InterruptedException e) {
             Thread.currentThread().interrupt(); // process this later
             throw new IOException("Failed to extract "+name,e);
-        } catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
-            throw new IOException("Failed to extract "+name,e);
         } finally {
             t.close();
         }
@@ -2725,20 +2725,6 @@ public final class FilePath implements Serializable {
         }
     };
 
-    private static final Field LINKFLAG_FIELD = getTarEntryLinkFlagField();
-
-    private static Field getTarEntryLinkFlagField() {
-        try {
-            Field f = TarEntry.class.getDeclaredField("linkFlag");
-            f.setAccessible(true);
-            return f;
-        } catch (SecurityException e) {
-            throw new AssertionError(e);
-        } catch (NoSuchFieldException e) {
-            throw new AssertionError(e);
-        }
-    }
-
     /**
      * Gets the {@link FilePath} representation of the "~" directory
      * (User's home directory in the Unix sense) of the given channel.
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/hudson/org/apache/tools/tar/TarInputStream.java b/core/src/main/java/hudson/org/apache/tools/tar/TarInputStream.java
index f2d10c1c39..d7d8a5b54d 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/hudson/org/apache/tools/tar/TarInputStream.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/hudson/org/apache/tools/tar/TarInputStream.java
@@ -37,8 +37,9 @@ import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
  * methods are provided to position at each successive entry in
  * the archive, and the read each entry as a normal input stream
  * using read().
- *
+ * @deprecated Use {@link org.apache.commons.compress.archivers.tar.TarArchiveInputStream} instead
  */
+@Deprecated
 public class TarInputStream extends FilterInputStream {
 
     // CheckStyle:VisibilityModifier OFF - bc
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/hudson/org/apache/tools/tar/TarOutputStream.java b/core/src/main/java/hudson/org/apache/tools/tar/TarOutputStream.java
index f23e442628..48f4876bd4 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/hudson/org/apache/tools/tar/TarOutputStream.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/hudson/org/apache/tools/tar/TarOutputStream.java
@@ -35,8 +35,11 @@ import java.io.IOException;
  * The TarOutputStream writes a UNIX tar archive as an OutputStream.
  * Methods are provided to put entries, and then write their contents
  * by writing to this stream using write().
+ * 
+ * @deprecated Use {@link org.apache.commons.compress.archivers.tar.TarArchiveOutputStream} instead
  *
  */
+@Deprecated
 public class TarOutputStream extends FilterOutputStream {
     /** Fail if a long file name is required in the archive. */
     public static final int LONGFILE_ERROR = 0;
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/hudson/util/io/TarArchiver.java b/core/src/main/java/hudson/util/io/TarArchiver.java
index 7e7a3dd4f0..00f75bee07 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/hudson/util/io/TarArchiver.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/hudson/util/io/TarArchiver.java
@@ -37,6 +37,8 @@ import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.OutputStream;
 import java.lang.reflect.Field;
+import org.apache.commons.compress.archivers.tar.TarArchiveEntry;
+import org.apache.commons.compress.archivers.tar.TarArchiveOutputStream;
 
 import static org.apache.tools.tar.TarConstants.LF_SYMLINK;
 
@@ -47,10 +49,10 @@ import static org.apache.tools.tar.TarConstants.LF_SYMLINK;
  */
 final class TarArchiver extends Archiver {
     private final byte[] buf = new byte[8192];
-    private final TarOutputStream tar;
+    private final TarArchiveOutputStream tar;
 
     TarArchiver(OutputStream out) {
-        tar = new TarOutputStream(new BufferedOutputStream(out) {
+        tar = new TarArchiveOutputStream(new BufferedOutputStream(out) {
             // TarOutputStream uses TarBuffer internally,
             // which flushes the stream for each block. this creates unnecessary
             // data stream fragmentation, and flush request to a remote, which slows things down.
@@ -58,13 +60,13 @@ final class TarArchiver extends Archiver {
             public void flush() throws IOException {
                 // so don't do anything in flush
             }
-        });
-        tar.setLongFileMode(TarOutputStream.LONGFILE_GNU);
+        });    
+        tar.setLongFileMode(TarArchiveOutputStream.LONGFILE_GNU);
     }
 
     @Override
     public void visitSymlink(File link, String target, String relativePath) throws IOException {
-        TarEntry e = new TarEntry(relativePath, LF_SYMLINK);
+        TarArchiveEntry e = new TarArchiveEntry(relativePath, LF_SYMLINK);
         try {
             int mode = IOUtils.mode(link);
             if (mode != -1) {
@@ -73,16 +75,11 @@ final class TarArchiver extends Archiver {
         } catch (PosixException x) {
             // ignore
         }
+        
+        e.setLinkName(target);
 
-        try {
-            StringBuffer linkName = (StringBuffer) LINKNAME_FIELD.get(e);
-            linkName.setLength(0);
-            linkName.append(target);
-        } catch (IllegalAccessException x) {
-            throw new IOException("Failed to set linkName", x);
-        }
-
-        tar.putNextEntry(e);
+        tar.putArchiveEntry(e);
+        tar.closeArchiveEntry();
         entriesWritten++;
     }
 
@@ -97,14 +94,14 @@ final class TarArchiver extends Archiver {
 
         if(file.isDirectory())
             relativePath+='/';
-        TarEntry te = new TarEntry(relativePath);
+        TarArchiveEntry te = new TarArchiveEntry(relativePath);
         int mode = IOUtils.mode(file);
         if (mode!=-1)   te.setMode(mode);
         te.setModTime(file.lastModified());
         if(!file.isDirectory())
             te.setSize(file.length());
 
-        tar.putNextEntry(te);
+        tar.putArchiveEntry(te);
 
         if (!file.isDirectory()) {
             FileInputStream in = new FileInputStream(file);
@@ -117,25 +114,11 @@ final class TarArchiver extends Archiver {
             }
         }
 
-        tar.closeEntry();
+        tar.closeArchiveEntry();
         entriesWritten++;
     }
 
     public void close() throws IOException {
         tar.close();
     }
-
-    private static final Field LINKNAME_FIELD = getTarEntryLinkNameField();
-
-    private static Field getTarEntryLinkNameField() {
-        try {
-            Field f = TarEntry.class.getDeclaredField("linkName");
-            f.setAccessible(true);
-            return f;
-        } catch (SecurityException e) {
-            throw new AssertionError(e);
-        } catch (NoSuchFieldException e) {
-            throw new AssertionError(e);
-        }
-    }
 }