here is one way to do it. tested for .gz files. should also work for .Z files.

source: adapted from the compress::zlib example code.

use Compress::Zlib;

my $fil = shift || die ("need compressed file, stopped");

die "$fil not a gz'd file, stopped" 
unless (($fil =~ /.gz$/) || ($fil =~ /.Z$/));

(my $rootfil = $fil) =~ s/.gz$//;

open OOTFIL, ">$rootfil" or die ("cannot open file for gunzip");

binmode OOTFIL or die ("cannot binmode $rootfil");

$gz = gzopen($fil, "rb") or die ("can't open $fil, $gzerrno, stopped")
+;

my $buffer;

print OOTFIL $buffer while $gz->gzread($buffer) > 0;

die "Error reading from file $file: $gzerrno\n" if $gzerrno != Z_STREA
+M_END;

$gz->gzclose();

close(OOTFIL);
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hasta la vista