This is the README file for Archive::Tar, the Perl module for creation and manipulation of tar files. * Installation Archive::Tar uses the standard perl module install process perl Makefile.PL make make test (optional but recommended) make install This module uses no C-coded parts in itself, but it will try to use the Compress::Zlib module to read and write gzipped tarfiles. Archive::Tar will still work without Zlib, it will just complain a little bit (and, of course, not be able to use compression). The complaining will be removed when the module leaves the alpha stage, and can be trivially removed by commenting out the offending print near the top of Tar.pm. * important changes in version 0.20: New class methods create_archive, extract_archive & list_archive. Archive::Tar no longer keeps the entire archive in memory after reading it. This results in a major reduction in memory consumption. Added suport for character & block special files. These files are currently created using mknod, so they will only be available on UNIX platforms. See the file ChangeLog for more complete details. * important changes for version 0.08 Fixed (again) the MacOS support and included alpha support for block/character special files as well as improving symlink handling. NOTE: Archive::Tar is undergoing major work to extend the interface and lower memory consumpton. Any changes to the existing interface should be extensions only. * important changes for version 0.072. Fixes a problem with systems that don't like open files being deleted. It also has an explicit copyright notice so folks like Debian can redistribute it in peace, and an new custodial maintainer due to Calle's suffering Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Get better soon, Calle! * important changes for version 0.071 It fixes a bunch of bugs, implements POSIX-style long pathnames and adds a couple of useful methods. It has also been verified to work on Win32. This version also includes a small tar-lookalike program, ptar. There is no documentation beyond a usage message, but if you've ever used at Unix-style tar program it should be very familiar. Unless something really strange and terrible shows up, this will be the last alpha-test version, and the next release will be beta-test and v0.50 or something like that. If you use this module at all, please mail Calle <calle@lysator.liu.se> or Stephen <gibreel@pobox.com> and tell us what you think of it. Calle Dybedahl, 33 Aftermath, 3163 (mundanely known as 21 November 1997) Gurusamy "stand-in maintainer" Sarathy, -697 Millennium, 2 (mundanely known as 1 February 1998) Stephen Zander (new custodial maintainer) Day 9, Year 90 of Our Ford (mundanely known as 9 January 1999)
