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 0.23, 21/1/2003:

Bundled 0.072 and 0.22 to be able to work on Win32 and non-Win32
platforms. Since the previous version is almost 3 years old, bundling
seemed like the quickest way to get a working solution again.

Archive::Tar now transparently Does The Right Thing depending what
platform you are on -- Win32 users, read the Archive::Tar::Win32
documentation!

I also suppose this makes me the new maintainer...

* 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)

Jos Boumans (bundler),
1043188048 (mundanely known as 21st of January 2003)