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NAME

       Archive::Tar - module for manipulations of tar archives

SYNOPSIS

           use Archive::Tar;
           my $tar = Archive::Tar->new;

           $tar->read('origin.tgz');
           $tar->extract();

           $tar->add_files('file/foo.pl', 'docs/README');
           $tar->add_data('file/baz.txt', 'This is the contents now');

           $tar->rename('oldname', 'new/file/name');
           $tar->chown('/', 'root');
           $tar->chown('/', 'root:root');
           $tar->chmod('/tmp', '1777');

           $tar->write('files.tar');                   # plain tar
           $tar->write('files.tgz', COMPRESS_GZIP);    # gzip compressed
           $tar->write('files.tbz', COMPRESS_BZIP);    # bzip2 compressed
           $tar->write('files.txz', COMPRESS_XZ);      # xz compressed

DESCRIPTION

       Archive::Tar provides an object oriented mechanism for handling tar files.  It provides class methods for
       quick and easy files handling while also allowing for the creation of tar file objects for custom
       manipulation.  If you have the IO::Zlib module installed, Archive::Tar will also support compressed or
       gzipped tar files.

       An object of class Archive::Tar represents a .tar(.gz) archive full of files and things.

Object Methods

   Archive::Tar->new( [$file, $compressed] )
       Returns a new Tar object. If given any arguments, new() calls the read() method automatically, passing on
       the arguments provided to the read() method.

       If new() is invoked with arguments and the read() method fails for any reason, new() returns undef.

   $tar->read ( $filename|$handle, [$compressed, {opt => 'val'}] )
       Read the given tar file into memory.  The first argument can either be the name of a file or a reference
       to an already open filehandle (or an IO::Zlib object if it's compressed)

       The "read" will replace any previous content in $tar!

       The second argument may be considered optional, but remains for backwards compatibility. Archive::Tar now
       looks at the file magic to determine what class should be used to open the file and will transparently Do
       The Right Thing.

       Archive::Tar will warn if you try to pass a bzip2 / xz compressed file and the IO::Uncompress::Bunzip2 /
       IO::Uncompress::UnXz are not available and simply return.

       Note that you can currently not pass a "gzip" compressed filehandle, which is not opened with "IO::Zlib",
       a "bzip2" compressed filehandle, which is not opened with "IO::Uncompress::Bunzip2", a "xz" compressed
       filehandle, which is not opened with "IO::Uncompress::UnXz", nor a string containing the full archive
       information (either compressed or uncompressed). These are worth while features, but not currently
       implemented. See the "TODO" section.

       The third argument can be a hash reference with options. Note that all options are case-sensitive.

       limit
           Do  not  read  more  than  "limit"  files. This is useful if you have very big archives, and are only
           interested in the first few files.

       filter
           Can be set to a regular expression.  Only files with names that match the expression will be read.

       md5 Set to 1 and the md5sum of files will be returned (instead of file data)
               my $iter = Archive::Tar->iter( $file,  1, {md5 => 1} );
               while( my $f = $iter->() ) {
                   print $f->data . "\t" . $f->full_path . $/;
               }

       extract
           If set to true, immediately extract entries when reading them. This gives you the same  memory  break
           as  the  "extract_archive"  function.   Note  however  that entries will not be read into memory, but
           written straight to disk. This means no "Archive::Tar::File" objects are created for you to inspect.

       All files are stored internally as "Archive::Tar::File" objects.  Please consult  the  Archive::Tar::File
       documentation for details.

       Returns  the  number  of files read in scalar context, and a list of "Archive::Tar::File" objects in list
       context.

   $tar->contains_file( $filename )
       Check if the archive contains a certain file.  It will return true if the file is in the  archive,  false
       otherwise.

       Note however, that this function does an exact match using "eq" on the full path. So it cannot compensate
       for  case-insensitive  file- systems or compare 2 paths to see if they would point to the same underlying
       file.

   $tar->extract( [@filenames] )
       Write files whose names are equivalent to any of the names in @filenames to disk, creating subdirectories
       as necessary. This might not work too well under VMS.  Under MacPerl, the file's modification  time  will
       be  converted  to the MacOS zero of time, and appropriate conversions will be done to the path.  However,
       the length of each element of the path is not inspected to see whether it's longer than  MacOS  currently
       allows (32 characters).

       If "extract" is called without a list of file names, the entire contents of the archive are extracted.

       Returns a list of filenames extracted.

   $tar->extract_file( $file, [$extract_path] )
       Write  an  entry,  whose  name is equivalent to the file name provided to disk. Optionally takes a second
       parameter, which is the full native path (including filename) the entry will be written to.

       For example:

           $tar->extract_file( 'name/in/archive', 'name/i/want/to/give/it' );

           $tar->extract_file( $at_file_object,   'name/i/want/to/give/it' );

       Returns true on success, false on failure.

   $tar->list_files( [\@properties] )
       Returns a list of the names of all the files in the archive.

       If list_files() is passed an array reference as its first argument it returns a list of  hash  references
       containing  the  requested properties of each file.  The following list of properties is supported: name,
       size, mtime (last modified date), mode, uid, gid, linkname, uname, gname, devmajor, devminor, prefix.

       Passing an array reference containing only one element, 'name', is special cased  to  return  a  list  of
       names  rather  than  a  list  of  hash  references,  making it equivalent to calling "list_files" without
       arguments.

   $tar->get_files( [@filenames] )
       Returns the "Archive::Tar::File" objects matching the filenames provided. If no filename list was passed,
       all "Archive::Tar::File" objects in the current Tar object are returned.

       Please refer to the "Archive::Tar::File" documentation on how to handle these objects.

   $tar->get_content( $file )
       Return the content of the named file.

   $tar->replace_content( $file, $content )
       Make the string $content be the content for the file named $file.

   $tar->rename( $file, $new_name )
       Rename the file of the in-memory archive to $new_name.

       Note that you must specify a Unix path for $new_name, since per tar standard, all files  in  the  archive
       must be Unix paths.

       Returns true on success and false on failure.

   $tar->chmod( $file, $mode )
       Change mode of $file to $mode.

       Returns true on success and false on failure.

   $tar->chown( $file, $uname [, $gname] )
       Change owner $file to $uname and $gname.

       Returns true on success and false on failure.

   $tar->remove (@filenamelist)
       Removes  any entries with names matching any of the given filenames from the in-memory archive. Returns a
       list of "Archive::Tar::File" objects that remain.

   $tar->clear
       "clear" clears the current in-memory archive. This effectively gives you a 'blank' object,  ready  to  be
       filled again. Note that "clear" only has effect on the object, not the underlying tarfile.

   $tar->write ( [$file, $compressed, $prefix] )
       Write  the in-memory archive to disk.  The first argument can either be the name of a file or a reference
       to an already open filehandle (a GLOB reference).

       The second argument is used to indicate compression. You can compress using "gzip", "bzip2" or  "xz".  If
       you  pass  a  digit,  it's  assumed  to be the "gzip" compression level (between 1 and 9), but the use of
       constants is preferred:

         # write a gzip compressed file
         $tar->write( 'out.tgz', COMPRESS_GZIP );

         # write a bzip compressed file
         $tar->write( 'out.tbz', COMPRESS_BZIP );

         # write a xz compressed file
         $tar->write( 'out.txz', COMPRESS_XZ );

       Note that when you pass in a filehandle, the compression argument is ignored, as all  files  are  printed
       verbatim  to  your  filehandle.   If  you wish to enable compression with filehandles, use an "IO::Zlib",
       "IO::Compress::Bzip2" or "IO::Compress::Xz" filehandle instead.

       The third argument is an optional prefix. All files will be tucked away in the directory you  specify  as
       prefix.  So  if you have files 'a' and 'b' in your archive, and you specify 'foo' as prefix, they will be
       written to the archive as 'foo/a' and 'foo/b'.

       If no arguments are given, "write" returns the entire formatted archive  as  a  string,  which  could  be
       useful if you'd like to stuff the archive into a socket or a pipe to gzip or something.

   $tar->add_files( @filenamelist )
       Takes a list of filenames and adds them to the in-memory archive.

       The path to the file is automatically converted to a Unix like equivalent for use in the archive, and, if
       on  MacOS,  the  file's  modification  time  is converted from the MacOS epoch to the Unix epoch.  So tar
       archives created on MacOS with Archive::Tar can be read both with  tar  on  Unix  and  applications  like
       suntar or Stuffit Expander on MacOS.

       Be  aware  that the file's type/creator and resource fork will be lost, which is usually what you want in
       cross-platform archives.

       Instead of a filename, you can also pass it an existing "Archive::Tar::File" object  from,  for  example,
       another archive. The object will be clone, and effectively be a copy of the original, not an alias.

       Returns a list of "Archive::Tar::File" objects that were just added.

   $tar->add_data ( $filename, $data, [$opthashref] )
       Takes a filename, a scalar full of data and optionally a reference to a hash with specific options.

       Will  add a file to the in-memory archive, with name $filename and content $data. Specific properties can
       be set using $opthashref.  The following list  of  properties  is  supported:  name,  size,  mtime  (last
       modified date), mode, uid, gid, linkname, uname, gname, devmajor, devminor, prefix, type.  (On MacOS, the
       file's path and modification times are converted to Unix equivalents.)

       Valid values for the file type are the following constants defined by Archive::Tar::Constant:

       FILE
           Regular file.

       HARDLINK
       SYMLINK
           Hard and symbolic ("soft") links; linkname should specify target.

       CHARDEV
       BLOCKDEV
           Character and block devices. devmajor and devminor should specify the major and minor device numbers.

       DIR Directory.

       FIFO
           FIFO (named pipe).

       SOCKET
           Socket.

       Returns the "Archive::Tar::File" object that was just added, or "undef" on failure.

   $tar->error( [$BOOL] )
       Returns  the  current error string (usually, the last error reported).  If a true value was specified, it
       will give the "Carp::longmess" equivalent of the error, in effect giving you a stacktrace.

       For backwards compatibility, this error is also available as $Archive::Tar::error  although  it  is  much
       recommended you use the method call instead.

   $tar->setcwd( $cwd );
       "Archive::Tar"  needs  to know the current directory, and it will run Cwd::cwd() every time it extracts a
       relative entry from the tarfile and  saves  it  in  the  file  system.  (As  of  version  1.30,  however,
       "Archive::Tar"  will  use  the speed optimization described below automatically, so it's only relevant if
       you're using extract_file()).

       Since "Archive::Tar" doesn't change the current directory internally while it is extracting the items  in
       a  tarball, all calls to Cwd::cwd() can be avoided if we can guarantee that the current directory doesn't
       get changed externally.

       To use this performance boost, set the current directory via

           use Cwd;
           $tar->setcwd( cwd() );

       once before calling a function like "extract_file" and "Archive::Tar"  will  use  the  current  directory
       setting from then on and won't call Cwd::cwd() internally.

       To switch back to the default behaviour, use

           $tar->setcwd( undef );

       and "Archive::Tar" will call Cwd::cwd() internally again.

       If you're using "Archive::Tar"'s extract() method, setcwd() will be called for you.

Class Methods

   Archive::Tar->create_archive($file, $compressed, @filelist)
       Creates a tar file from the list of files provided.  The first argument can either be the name of the tar
       file to create or a reference to an open file handle (e.g. a GLOB reference).

       The  second  argument is used to indicate compression. You can compress using "gzip", "bzip2" or "xz". If
       you pass a digit, it's assumed to be the "gzip" compression level (between 1  and  9),  but  the  use  of
       constants is preferred:

         # write a gzip compressed file
         Archive::Tar->create_archive( 'out.tgz', COMPRESS_GZIP, @filelist );

         # write a bzip compressed file
         Archive::Tar->create_archive( 'out.tbz', COMPRESS_BZIP, @filelist );

         # write a xz compressed file
         Archive::Tar->create_archive( 'out.txz', COMPRESS_XZ, @filelist );

       Note  that  when  you pass in a filehandle, the compression argument is ignored, as all files are printed
       verbatim to your filehandle.  If you wish to enable compression  with  filehandles,  use  an  "IO::Zlib",
       "IO::Compress::Bzip2" or "IO::Compress::Xz" filehandle instead.

       The  remaining  arguments list the files to be included in the tar file.  These files must all exist. Any
       files which don't exist or can't be read are silently ignored.

       If the archive creation fails for any reason, "create_archive" will return false. Please use the  "error"
       method to find the cause of the failure.

       Note  that  this  method does not write "on the fly" as it were; it still reads all the files into memory
       before writing out the archive.  Consult the FAQ below if this is a problem.

   Archive::Tar->iter( $filename, [ $compressed, {opt => $val} ] )
       Returns an iterator function that reads the tar file without loading it all in  memory.   Each  time  the
       function  is  called  it  will  return  the  next  file  in  the  tarball.  The  files  are  returned  as
       "Archive::Tar::File" objects. The iterator function returns the empty list  once  it  has  exhausted  the
       files contained.

       The  second argument can be a hash reference with options, which are identical to the arguments passed to
       read().

       Example usage:

           my $next = Archive::Tar->iter( "example.tar.gz", 1, {filter => qr/\.pm$/} );

           while( my $f = $next->() ) {
               print $f->name, "\n";

               $f->extract or warn "Extraction failed";

               # ....
           }

   Archive::Tar->list_archive($file, $compressed, [\@properties])
       Returns a list of the names of all the files in the archive.  The first argument can either be  the  name
       of the tar file to list or a reference to an open file handle (e.g. a GLOB reference).

       If list_archive() is passed an array reference as its third argument it returns a list of hash references
       containing  the  requested  properties  of  each  file.   The  following list of properties is supported:
       full_path, name, size, mtime (last modified date), mode, uid,  gid,  linkname,  uname,  gname,  devmajor,
       devminor, prefix, type.

       See "Archive::Tar::File" for details about supported properties.

       Passing  an  array  reference  containing  only one element, 'name', is special cased to return a list of
       names rather than a list of hash references.

   Archive::Tar->extract_archive($file, $compressed)
       Extracts the contents of the tar file.  The first argument can either be the name  of  the  tar  file  to
       create or a reference to an open file handle (e.g. a GLOB reference).  All relative paths in the tar file
       will be created underneath the current working directory.

       "extract_archive"  will  return  a  list  of files it extracted.  If the archive extraction fails for any
       reason, "extract_archive" will return false.  Please use the "error" method to  find  the  cause  of  the
       failure.

   $bool = Archive::Tar->has_io_string
       Returns true if we currently have "IO::String" support loaded.

       Either  "IO::String"  or  "perlio"  support is needed to support writing stringified archives. Currently,
       "perlio" is the preferred method, if available.

       See the "GLOBAL VARIABLES" section to see how to change this preference.

   $bool = Archive::Tar->has_perlio
       Returns true if we currently have "perlio" support loaded.

       This requires "perl-5.8" or higher, compiled with "perlio"

       Either "IO::String" or "perlio" support is needed to support  writing  stringified  archives.  Currently,
       "perlio" is the preferred method, if available.

       See the "GLOBAL VARIABLES" section to see how to change this preference.

   $bool = Archive::Tar->has_zlib_support
       Returns true if "Archive::Tar" can extract "zlib" compressed archives

   $bool = Archive::Tar->has_bzip2_support
       Returns true if "Archive::Tar" can extract "bzip2" compressed archives

   $bool = Archive::Tar->has_xz_support
       Returns true if "Archive::Tar" can extract "xz" compressed archives

   Archive::Tar->can_handle_compressed_files
       A  simple  checking  routine,  which  will return true if "Archive::Tar" is able to uncompress compressed
       archives on the fly with "IO::Zlib", "IO::Compress::Bzip2" and "IO::Compress::Xz" or false  if  not  both
       are installed.

       You  can use this as a shortcut to determine whether "Archive::Tar" will do what you think before passing
       compressed archives to its "read" method.

GLOBAL VARIABLES

   $Archive::Tar::FOLLOW_SYMLINK
       Set this variable to 1 to make "Archive::Tar" effectively make  a  copy  of  the  file  when  extracting.
       Default  is  0, which means the symlink stays intact. Of course, you will have to pack the file linked to
       as well.

       This option is checked when you write out the tarfile using "write" or "create_archive".

       This works just like "/bin/tar"'s "-h" option.

   $Archive::Tar::CHOWN
       By default, "Archive::Tar" will try to "chown" your files if it is able to. In some cases, this  may  not
       be desired. In that case, set this variable to 0 to disable "chown"-ing, even if it were possible.

       The default is 1.

   $Archive::Tar::CHMOD
       By  default,  "Archive::Tar"  will  try  to  "chmod"  your  files  to whatever mode was specified for the
       particular file in the archive.  In some cases, this may not be desired. In that case, set this  variable
       to 0 to disable "chmod"-ing.

       The default is 1.

   $Archive::Tar::SAME_PERMISSIONS
       When,  $Archive::Tar::CHMOD  is  enabled, this setting controls whether the permissions on files from the
       archive are used without modification of if they are filtered by removing any setid bits and applying the
       current umask.

       The default is 1 for the root user and 0 for normal users.

   $Archive::Tar::DO_NOT_USE_PREFIX
       By default, "Archive::Tar" will try to put paths that are over 100 characters in the  "prefix"  field  of
       your  tar header, as defined per POSIX-standard. However, some (older) tar programs do not implement this
       spec. To retain compatibility with  these  older  or  non-POSIX  compliant  versions,  you  can  set  the
       $DO_NOT_USE_PREFIX variable to a true value, and "Archive::Tar" will use an alternate way of dealing with
       paths over 100 characters by using the "GNU Extended Header" feature.

       Note  that  clients  who  do not support the "GNU Extended Header" feature will not be able to read these
       archives. Such clients include tars on "Solaris", "Irix" and "AIX".

       The default is 0.

   $Archive::Tar::DEBUG
       Set this variable to 1 to always get the "Carp::longmess" output of the warnings, instead of the  regular
       "carp". This is the same message you would get by doing:

           $tar->error(1);

       Defaults to 0.

   $Archive::Tar::WARN
       Set  this  variable  to  0 if you do not want any warnings printed.  Personally I recommend against doing
       this, but people asked for the option. Also, be advised that this is of course not threadsafe.

       Defaults to 1.

   $Archive::Tar::error
       Holds the last reported error. Kept for historical reasons, but its use is very much discouraged. Use the
       error() method instead:

           warn $tar->error unless $tar->extract;

       Note that in older versions of this module, the error() method would return an effectively  global  value
       even  when  called  an  instance  method  as  above. This has since been fixed, and multiple instances of
       "Archive::Tar" now have separate error strings.

   $Archive::Tar::INSECURE_EXTRACT_MODE
       This variable indicates whether "Archive::Tar" should allow files to be extracted outside  their  current
       working directory.

       Allowing  this  could  have  security implications, as a malicious tar archive could alter or replace any
       file the extracting user has permissions to. Therefor, the default is to not allow insecure extractions.

       If you trust the archive, or have other reasons to allow the archive to write files outside your  current
       working directory, set this variable to "true".

       Note that this is a backwards incompatible change from version 1.36 and before.

   $Archive::Tar::HAS_PERLIO
       This  variable  holds  a  boolean  indicating  if we currently have "perlio" support loaded. This will be
       enabled for any perl greater than 5.8 compiled with "perlio".

       If you feel strongly about disabling it, set this variable to "false".  Note  that  you  will  then  need
       "IO::String" installed to support writing stringified archives.

       Don't change this variable unless you really know what you're doing.

   $Archive::Tar::HAS_IO_STRING
       This  variable  holds a boolean indicating if we currently have "IO::String" support loaded. This will be
       enabled for any perl that has a loadable "IO::String" module.

       If you feel strongly about disabling it, set this variable to "false".  Note  that  you  will  then  need
       "perlio" support from your perl to be able to  write stringified archives.

       Don't change this variable unless you really know what you're doing.

   $Archive::Tar::ZERO_PAD_NUMBERS
       This  variable  holds  a boolean indicating if we will create zero padded numbers for "size", "mtime" and
       "checksum".  The default  is  0,  indicating  that  we  will  create  space  padded  numbers.  Added  for
       compatibility with "busybox" implementations.

   Tuning the way RESOLVE_SYMLINK will works
               You can tune the behaviour by setting the $Archive::Tar::RESOLVE_SYMLINK variable,
               or $ENV{PERL5_AT_RESOLVE_SYMLINK} before loading the module Archive::Tar.

         Values can be one of the following:

                       none
                  Disable this mechanism and failed as it was in previous version (<1.88)

                       speed (default)
                  If you prefer speed
                  this will read again the whole archive using read() so all entries
                  will be available

           memory
                  If you prefer memory

               Limitation

                       It won't work for terminal, pipe or sockets or every non seekable source.

FAQ

       What's the minimum perl version required to run Archive::Tar?
           You will need perl version 5.005_03 or newer.

       Isn't Archive::Tar slow?
           Yes  it is. It's pure perl, so it's a lot slower then your "/bin/tar" However, it's very portable. If
           speed is an issue, consider using "/bin/tar" instead.

       Isn't Archive::Tar heavier on memory than /bin/tar?
           Yes it is, see previous answer. Since  "Compress::Zlib"  and  therefore  "IO::Zlib"  doesn't  support
           "seek"  on their filehandles, there is little choice but to read the archive into memory.  This is ok
           if you want to do in-memory manipulation of the archive.

           If you just want to extract, use the "extract_archive" class method instead.  It  will  optimize  and
           write to disk immediately.

           Another  option  is  to  use the "iter" class method to iterate over the files in the tarball without
           reading them all in memory at once.

       Can you lazy-load data instead?
           In some cases, yes. You can use the "iter" class method to iterate over  the  files  in  the  tarball
           without reading them all in memory at once.

       How much memory will an X kb tar file need?
           Probably  more  than X kb, since it will all be read into memory. If this is a problem, and you don't
           need to do in memory manipulation of  the  archive,  consider  using  the  "iter"  class  method,  or
           "/bin/tar" instead.

       What do you do with unsupported filetypes in an archive?
           "Unix"  has a few filetypes that aren't supported on other platforms, like "Win32". If we encounter a
           "hardlink" or "symlink" we'll just try to make a copy of the original file, rather than  throwing  an
           error.

           This does require you to read the entire archive in to memory first, since otherwise we wouldn't know
           what data to fill the copy with.  (This means that you cannot use the class methods, including "iter"
           on archives that have incompatible filetypes and still expect things to work).

           For  other  filetypes,  like  "chardevs"  and  "blockdevs"  we'll  warn  that  the extraction of this
           particular item didn't work.

       I'm using WinZip, or some other non-POSIX client, and files are not being extracted properly!
           By default,  "Archive::Tar"  is  in  a  completely  POSIX-compatible  mode,  which  uses  the  POSIX-
           specification of "tar" to store files.  For paths greater than 100 characters, this is done using the
           "POSIX  header  prefix". Non-POSIX-compatible clients may not support this part of the specification,
           and may only support the "GNU Extended Header" functionality. To facilitate those  clients,  you  can
           set  the  $Archive::Tar::DO_NOT_USE_PREFIX variable to "true". See the "GLOBAL VARIABLES" section for
           details on this variable.

           Note that GNU tar earlier than version 1.14 does not cope well with the "POSIX header prefix". If you
           use such a version, consider setting the $Archive::Tar::DO_NOT_USE_PREFIX variable to "true".

       How do I extract only files that have property X from an archive?
           Sometimes, you might not wish to extract a complete archive, just the files that are relevant to you,
           based on some criteria.

           You can do this by filtering a list of "Archive::Tar::File"  objects  based  on  your  criteria.  For
           example, to extract only files that have the string "foo" in their title, you would use:

               $tar->extract(
                   grep { $_->full_path =~ /foo/ } $tar->get_files
               );

           This   way,   you   can  filter  on  any  attribute  of  the  files  in  the  archive.   Consult  the
           "Archive::Tar::File" documentation on how to use these objects.

       How do I access .tar.Z files?
           The "Archive::Tar" module can optionally use "Compress::Zlib" (via the "IO::Zlib" module)  to  access
           tar  files  that  have  been compressed with "gzip". Unfortunately tar files compressed with the Unix
           "compress" utility cannot be  read  by  "Compress::Zlib"  and  so  cannot  be  directly  accesses  by
           "Archive::Tar".

           If  the "uncompress" or "gunzip" programs are available, you can use one of these workarounds to read
           ".tar.Z" files from "Archive::Tar"

           Firstly with "uncompress"

               use Archive::Tar;

               open F, "uncompress -c $filename |";
               my $tar = Archive::Tar->new(*F);
               ...

           and this with "gunzip"

               use Archive::Tar;

               open F, "gunzip -c $filename |";
               my $tar = Archive::Tar->new(*F);
               ...

           Similarly, if the "compress" program is available, you can use this to write a ".tar.Z" file

               use Archive::Tar;
               use IO::File;

               my $fh = IO::File->new( "| compress -c >$filename" );
               my $tar = Archive::Tar->new();
               ...
               $tar->write($fh);
               $fh->close ;

       How do I handle Unicode strings?
           "Archive::Tar" uses byte semantics for any files it reads from or writes  to  disk.  This  is  not  a
           problem if you only deal with files and never look at their content or work solely with byte strings.
           But if you use Unicode strings with character semantics, some additional steps need to be taken.

           For example, if you add a Unicode string like

               # Problem
               $tar->add_data('file.txt', "Euro: \x{20AC}");

           then there will be a problem later when the tarfile gets written out to disk via "$tar->write()":

               Wide character in print at .../Archive/Tar.pm line 1014.

           The  data  was added as a Unicode string and when writing it out to disk, the ":utf8" line discipline
           wasn't set by "Archive::Tar", so Perl tried to convert the string to ISO-8859 and failed. The written
           file now contains garbage.

           For this reason, Unicode strings need to be converted to UTF-8-encoded bytestrings  before  they  are
           handed off to add_data():

               use Encode;
               my $data = "Accented character: \x{20AC}";
               $data = encode('utf8', $data);

               $tar->add_data('file.txt', $data);

           A  opposite  problem occurs if you extract a UTF8-encoded file from a tarball. Using get_content() on
           the "Archive::Tar::File" object will return its content as a bytestring, not as a Unicode string.

           If you want it to be a Unicode string (because you want  character  semantics  with  operations  like
           regular  expression  matching),  you need to decode the UTF8-encoded content and have Perl convert it
           into a Unicode string:

               use Encode;
               my $data = $tar->get_content();

               # Make it a Unicode string
               $data = decode('utf8', $data);

           There is no easy way to provide this functionality in "Archive::Tar", because a tarball  can  contain
           many files, and each of which could be encoded in a different way.

CAVEATS

       The AIX tar does not fill all unused space in the tar archive with 0x00.  This sometimes leads to warning
       messages from "Archive::Tar".

         Invalid header block at offset nnn

       A fix for that problem is scheduled to be released in the following levels of AIX, all of which should be
       coming out in the 4th quarter of 2009:

        AIX 5.3 TL7 SP10
        AIX 5.3 TL8 SP8
        AIX 5.3 TL9 SP5
        AIX 5.3 TL10 SP2

        AIX 6.1 TL0 SP11
        AIX 6.1 TL1 SP7
        AIX 6.1 TL2 SP6
        AIX 6.1 TL3 SP3

       The  IBM  APAR  number  for  this  problem is IZ50240 (Reported component ID: 5765G0300 / AIX 5.3). It is
       possible to get an ifix for that problem.  If you need an ifix please contact your local IBM AIX support.

TODO

       Check if passed in handles are open for read/write
           Currently I don't know of any portable pure perl way to do this.  Suggestions welcome.

       Allow archives to be passed in as string
           Currently, we only allow opened filehandles or filenames, but not strings. The internals  would  need
           some reworking to facilitate stringified archives.

       Facilitate processing an opened filehandle of a compressed archive
           Currently,  we only support this if the filehandle is an IO::Zlib object.  Environments, like apache,
           will present you with an opened filehandle to an uploaded file, which might be a compressed archive.

SEE ALSO

       The GNU tar specification
           "http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual/tar.html"

       The PAX format specification
           The          specification          which           tar           derives           from;           "
           http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/007904975/utilities/pax.html"

       A comparison of GNU and POSIX tar standards; "http://www.delorie.com/gnu/docs/tar/tar_114.html"
       GNU tar intends to switch to POSIX compatibility
           GNU   Tar   authors   have   expressed   their   intention  to  become  completely  POSIX-compatible;
           "http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual/html_node/Formats.html"

       A Comparison between various tar implementations
           Lists                known                issues                and                incompatibilities;
           "http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/utils/archivers/star/README.otherbugs"

AUTHOR

       This module by Jos Boumans <kane@cpan.org>.

       Please reports bugs to <bug-archive-tar@rt.cpan.org>.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

       Thanks  to Sean Burke, Chris Nandor, Chip Salzenberg, Tim Heaney, Gisle Aas, Rainer Tammer and especially
       Andrew Savige for their help and suggestions.

COPYRIGHT

       This module is copyright (c) 2002 - 2009 Jos Boumans <kane@cpan.org>. All rights reserved.

       This library is free software; you may redistribute and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

perl v5.38.2                                       2025-04-08                                Archive::Tar(3perl)