...can you in fact, confirm that the module will refuse to extract files that need an absolute path? In a simple test with tar (gnu tar v1.13.17) I find that tar will simply ignore the leading slash and install files relative to the local directory.

I would expect Tar.pm to do the same (will test it when I get home).

One approach you might take is to have your program inspect the pathnames on component files of a tarball to see if absolute paths or "upward" references are used. Your program can then provide the logic to deal with these cases.

I'll see if I can provide an example of this.

---v