#!/usr/bin/perl -slw

use strict;
use Archive::Tar;
#use Data::Dumper::Concise;

$Archive::Tar::FOLLOW_SYMLINK = 1;
print $Archive::Tar::VERSION;

my $t = Archive::Tar->new;
$t->add_files('bar');
$t->write( 'baz.tgz', COMPRESS_GZIP );
$t->error(1);
print "Done";

ls -l foo bar baz.tgz
ls: cannot access baz.tgz: No such file or directory
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 3 Sep 15 19:35 bar -> foo
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 0 Sep 15 23:19 foo

# perl z.tmp
1.78
Could not write data for: bar at z.tmp line 12
Done

# echo "abcd" >foo

# ls -l foo bar baz.tgz
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root  3 Sep 15 19:35 bar -> foo
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 97 Sep 15 23:21 baz.tgz
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  5 Sep 15 23:20 foo

# rm baz.tgz

# perl z.tmp
1.78
Done

]# ls -l foo bar baz.tgz
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root  3 Sep 15 19:35 bar -> foo
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 97 Sep 15 23:25 baz.tgz
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  5 Sep 15 23:20 foo

And sometimes, I get

# tar -tzvf baz.tgz
-rw-r--r-- root/root         0 2011-09-15 19:35 bar
tar: Skipping to next header
tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors