The file available in https://www.samba.org/ftp/ccache/ccache-2.4.tar.gz is really a tar archive. Therefore, the real question is not "How do I convert it from ASCII to tar format", but "Why does the file is an ASCII file instead of a tar?"
Probably, you downloaded the file incorrectly (and ASCII file contains the error strings returned by the server), or who gave you the file did.
Use a browser to download it or, if you want to do it by terminal, run:
curl -sfL "https://www.samba.org/ftp/ccache/ccache-2.4.tar.gz" -o ~/Downloads/ccache-2.4.tar.gz
or
wget -nv "https://www.samba.org/ftp/ccache/ccache-2.4.tar.gz" -O ~/Downloads/ccache-2.4.tar.gz
The file ccache-2.4.tar.gz
will be downloded in your ~/Downloads
directory.
wget
orcurl
, try using a browser.