man > Archive::Tar::File

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📖 NAME

Archive::Tar::File - a subclass for in-memory extracted file from Archive::Tar

🚀 Quick Reference

Use Case	Command	Description
📂 Create from file	Archive::Tar::File->new( file => $path )	🧩 Create a new object from an existing file
📝 Create from data	Archive::Tar::File->new( data => $path, $data, $opt )	🧩 Create a new object from in-memory data
📦 Create from raw chunk	Archive::Tar::File->new( chunk => $chunk )	🧩 Create a new object from a raw 512-byte tar header chunk
📤 Extract file	$file->extract( [ $alternative_name ] )	📦 Extract the file to disk
📖 Get content	$file->get_content	📄 Return the file's content as a string
📖 Get content by reference	$file->get_content_by_ref	📄 Return the file's content as a scalar reference (memory efficient)
✏️ Replace content	$file->replace_content( $content )	🔄 Replace the in-memory content of the file
✏️ Rename file	$file->rename( $new_name )	🏷️ Rename the file in the archive
🔍 Validate checksum	$file->validate	✅ Verify tar header checksum
🔍 Check type	$file->is_file, $file->is_dir, ...	🔎 Check file type (file, dir, symlink, etc.)
🔄 Change mode	$file->chmod $mode	🔐 Change file permissions
🔄 Change owner	$file->chown( $user [, $group] )	👤 Change file ownership

📋 SYNOPSIS

my @items = $tar->get_files;

print $_->name, ' ', $_->size, "\n" for @items;

print $object->get_content;
$object->replace_content('new content');

$object->rename( 'new/full/path/to/file.c' );

📝 DESCRIPTION

Archive::Tar::Files provides a neat little object layer for in-memory extracted files. It's mostly used internally in Archive::Tar to tidy up the code, but there's no reason users shouldn't use this API as well.

🔑 Accessors

A lot of the methods in this package are accessors to the various fields in the tar header:

• name — 📄 The file's name
• mode — 🔐 The file's mode
• uid — 👤 The user id owning the file
• gid — 👥 The group id owning the file
• size — 📏 File size in bytes
• mtime — 🕒 Modification time. Adjusted to mac-time on MacOS if required
• chksum — ✅ Checksum field for the tar header
• type — 🏷️ File type -- numeric, but comparable to exported constants
• linkname — 🔗 If the file is a symlink, the file it's pointing to
• magic — ✨ Tar magic string (not useful for most users)
• version — 🔢 Tar version string (not useful for most users)
• uname — 👤 The user name that owns the file
• gname — 👥 The group name that owns the file
• devmajor — ⚙️ Device major number (special file)
• devminor — ⚙️ Device minor number (special file)
• prefix — 📁 Any directory to prefix to the extraction path
• raw — 📦 Raw tar header (not useful for most users)

⚙️ Methods

📦 Archive::Tar::File->new( file => $path )

Returns a new Archive::Tar::File object from an existing file. Returns undef on failure.

📦 Archive::Tar::File->new( data => $path, $data, $opt )

Returns a new Archive::Tar::File object from data. $path defines the file name (which need not exist), $data the file contents, and $opt is a reference to a hash of attributes which may be used to override the default attributes (fields in the tar header). Returns undef on failure.

📦 Archive::Tar::File->new( chunk => $chunk )

Returns a new Archive::Tar::File object from a raw 512-byte tar archive chunk. Returns undef on failure.

📤 $bool = $file->extract( [ $alternative_name ] )

Extract this object, optionally to an alternative name. See “Archive::Tar->extract_file” for details. Returns true on success and false on failure.

📁 $path = $file->full_path

Returns the full path from the tar header; this is basically a concatenation of the “prefix” and “name” fields.

✅ $bool = $file->validate

Done by Archive::Tar internally when reading the tar file: validate the header against the checksum to ensure integer tar file. Returns true on success, false on failure.

📄 $bool = $file->has_content

Returns a boolean to indicate whether the current object has content. Some special files like directories never have content. This method is mainly to avoid warnings for uninitialized values.

📄 $content = $file->get_content

Returns the current content for the in-memory file.

📄 $cref = $file->get_content_by_ref

Returns the current content for the in-memory file as a scalar reference. Saves memory for large files.

✏️ $bool = $file->replace_content( $content )

Replace the current content of the file with new content. This only affects the in-memory archive, not the on-disk version until you write it. Returns true on success, false on failure.

🏷️ $bool = $file->rename( $new_name )

Rename the current file to $new_name. Note that you must specify a Unix path. Returns true on success and false on failure.

🔐 $bool = $file->chmod $mode

Change mode of $file to $mode. The mode can be a string or a number interpreted as octal. Returns true on success and false on failure.

👤 $bool = $file->chown( $user [, $group])

Change owner of $file to $user. If a $group is given, that is changed as well. You can also pass a single parameter with a colon separating the user and group (e.g., ‘root:wheel’). Returns true on success and false on failure.

🔍 Convenience Methods

To quickly check the type of a “Archive::Tar::File” object, you can use the following methods:

• $file->is_file — 📄 Returns true if the file is of type “file”
• $file->is_dir — 📁 Returns true if the file is of type “dir”
• $file->is_hardlink — 🔗 Returns true if the file is of type “hardlink”
• $file->is_symlink — 🔗 Returns true if the file is of type “symlink”
• $file->is_chardev — ⚙️ Returns true if the file is of type “chardev”
• $file->is_blockdev — ⚙️ Returns true if the file is of type “blockdev”
• $file->is_fifo — 🧵 Returns true if the file is of type “fifo”
• $file->is_socket — 🔌 Returns true if the file is of type “socket”
• $file->is_longlink — ⚠️ Returns true if the file is of type “LongLink”. Should not happen after a successful “read”.
• $file->is_label — 🏷️ Returns true if the file is of type “Label”. Should not happen after a successful “read”.
• $file->is_unknown — ❓ Returns true if the file type is “unknown”

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perl v5.34.0   2026-06-23   Archive::Tar::File(3perl)

📖 NAME 🚀 Quick Reference 📋 SYNOPSIS 📝 DESCRIPTION 🔑 Accessors ⚙️ Methods 🔍 Convenience Methods