#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
my $tarPath = "/path/to/place/tar/file";
my $fileName = "/path/to/file";
my $command = "tar xvf ";

$message = system ($command $tarPath $fileName);
if ($message == 0) {
    print "All done!\n";
} else {
    print "Whoops! $command gave exit error: $?\n";
}