BUG #13998: Misleading error from pg_basebackup

The following bug has been logged on the website:

Bug reference:      13998
Logged by:          Alexey Kuntsevich
Email address:      alexey.kuntsevich@gmail.com
PostgreSQL version: 9.5.1
Operating system:   Debian Jessie 8.2 x64
Description:

Hi!
Small thing really. Pg_basebackup is incompatible across versions in tar
mode, according to the documentation, but the error it returned when I tried
to make target it on to 9.3 was not something like "Trying to make a tar
backup with incompatible version", but 'pg_basebackup: could not initiate
base backup: ERROR:  syntax error: unexpected character "T"'. Can the error
message be updated or some version checking be implemented for this specific
case?

Thank you!