You could have a look in the PerlCookbook, pages 555 - 557. Otherwise you might try this: 
#!/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";
}

[download]

MadraghRua
yet another biologist hacking perl.... ---------------------------------------------------- UPDATE
You might want to stick a my in front of $message to satisfy the -w switch - sorry!

In reply to Re: command to tar files by MadraghRua
in thread command to tar files by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.