diff --git a/src/archive/tar/common.go b/src/archive/tar/common.go
index fb214c855d..6390ca41c6 100644
--- a/src/archive/tar/common.go
+++ b/src/archive/tar/common.go
@@ -25,6 +25,13 @@ import (
 // architectures. If a large value is encountered when decoding, the result
 // stored in Header will be the truncated version.
 
+var (
+	ErrHeader          = errors.New("tar: invalid tar header")
+	ErrWriteTooLong    = errors.New("tar: write too long")
+	ErrFieldTooLong    = errors.New("tar: header field too long")
+	ErrWriteAfterClose = errors.New("tar: write after close")
+)
+
 // Header type flags.
 const (
 	TypeReg           = '0'    // regular file
@@ -331,9 +338,9 @@ func FileInfoHeader(fi os.FileInfo, link string) (*Header, error) {
 	case fm&os.ModeNamedPipe != 0:
 		h.Typeflag = TypeFifo
 	case fm&os.ModeSocket != 0:
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("archive/tar: sockets not supported")
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("tar: sockets not supported")
 	default:
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("archive/tar: unknown file mode %v", fm)
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("tar: unknown file mode %v", fm)
 	}
 	if fm&os.ModeSetuid != 0 {
 		h.Mode |= c_ISUID
diff --git a/src/archive/tar/reader.go b/src/archive/tar/reader.go
index 98f6ea86fa..fb7cb8891d 100644
--- a/src/archive/tar/reader.go
+++ b/src/archive/tar/reader.go
@@ -9,7 +9,6 @@ package tar
 
 import (
 	"bytes"
-	"errors"
 	"io"
 	"io/ioutil"
 	"math"
@@ -18,10 +17,6 @@ import (
 	"time"
 )
 
-var (
-	ErrHeader = errors.New("archive/tar: invalid tar header")
-)
-
 // A Reader provides sequential access to the contents of a tar archive.
 // A tar archive consists of a sequence of files.
 // The Next method advances to the next file in the archive (including the first),
diff --git a/src/archive/tar/writer.go b/src/archive/tar/writer.go
index 3d75c398e9..65836ec17f 100644
--- a/src/archive/tar/writer.go
+++ b/src/archive/tar/writer.go
@@ -9,7 +9,6 @@ package tar
 
 import (
 	"bytes"
-	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"path"
@@ -18,13 +17,6 @@ import (
 	"time"
 )
 
-var (
-	ErrWriteTooLong    = errors.New("archive/tar: write too long")
-	ErrFieldTooLong    = errors.New("archive/tar: header field too long")
-	ErrWriteAfterClose = errors.New("archive/tar: write after close")
-	errInvalidHeader   = errors.New("archive/tar: header field too long or contains invalid values")
-)
-
 // A Writer provides sequential writing of a tar archive in POSIX.1 format.
 // A tar archive consists of a sequence of files.
 // Call WriteHeader to begin a new file, and then call Write to supply that file's data,
@@ -49,7 +41,7 @@ func NewWriter(w io.Writer) *Writer { return &Writer{w: w} }
 // will implicitly flush out the file's padding.
 func (tw *Writer) Flush() error {
 	if tw.nb > 0 {
-		tw.err = fmt.Errorf("archive/tar: missed writing %d bytes", tw.nb)
+		tw.err = fmt.Errorf("tar: missed writing %d bytes", tw.nb)
 		return tw.err
 	}
 	if _, tw.err = tw.w.Write(zeroBlock[:tw.pad]); tw.err != nil {