LNATION

File::Raw · File::Raw::Archive 0.04

File::Raw::Archive

Tar archives, read and written as a stream.

Tarballs entry by entry, never the whole archive in memory: iterate, list, extract, or build one. ustar, GNU long names and PAX headers, and .tar.gz with compression => 'gzip'. Its own plugin header lets other container formats load beside tar.

The reference On CPAN 

use File::Raw::Archive;

File::Raw::Archive->each('logs.tar.gz', compression => 'gzip', sub {
    my $e = shift;
    return if $e->is_dir;
    printf "%s (%d bytes)\n", $e->name, $e->size;
});

my $w = File::Raw::Archive->create('out.tar.gz', compression => 'gzip');
$w->add(name => 'README', content => "hello\n", mode => 0644);
$w->close;

What you get

  • Read tar as a stream

    An entry at a time with open and next, a callback with each, or everything as metadata with list.

  • Every tar dialect

    ustar, GNU ././@LongLink long names and PAX extended headers on read. ustar, GNU, PAX or automatic on write.

  • Extract

    extract_all to a directory, or extract one entry by name.

  • Build one

    create, then add files and directories with their content and mode, gzip-compressed at the level you choose.

  • More formats by plugin

    Archive publishes its own plugin header, so other container formats load beside tar as sister modules.

The numbers

Against the fastest alternative that was installed, and shown whichever way it went.

  • 16.4x list a 100-file tar, against Archive::Tar File::Raw::Archive 0.04 at 6100/s, Archive::Tar 3.04 at 371/s
  • 3.0x extract a 100-file tar, against Archive::Tar File::Raw::Archive 0.04 at 208/s, Archive::Tar 3.04 at 69.3/s

Measured on Apple M5, darwin with perl 5.42.0, 2026-10-19: each entry timed for 3 CPU seconds by the Benchmark module, 3 times, the median kept, after checking that both sides produced the same result. Every number.

For C

archive_plugin.h is a second level of plugin: a container format registers itself beside the built-in tar, and File::Raw::Archive finds it by name or by probing the file.

The header in the reference

Get it

cpanm File::Raw::Archive

The reference File::Raw::Archive on CPAN

The reference

Every File::Raw dist