In addition to what is already suggested:
Read the man page for zip or tar, then choose from:

1. Using backticks. See perlop.
2. Using a pipe, where supported. See perlopentut and/or IPC::Open2.
3. Using system. See it's documentation.

(Also discussed in perlfaq8#How do I start a process in the background?)

~Thomas~ 

"Excuse me for butting in, but I'm interrupt-driven..."