use IPC::Open2; 
open( TMPFILE, "<$tmpfile" ) 
    or die "Couldn't open $tmpfile for reading: $!"; 
my $g_pid = open2(FROM_GUNZIP, "<&TMPFILE", "gunzip", "-c", "-d"); my $t_pid = open2(FROM_TAR, "<&FROM_GUNZIP", "tar", "tf", "-"); 
if( my @tar_output = <FROM_TAR> ) { 
   print "Success!  The tar file contains the following:\n"; print @tar_output; 
} else { 
   print "Failure!\n"; 
   print "Either the tar file empty, or something screwed up.\n"; } 
if( waitpid $g_pid, 0 ) { 
    my ($sig, $ret) = ($? & 255, $? >> 8); 
    die "gunzip died from signal $sig" if $sig; 
    die "gunzip exited with code $ret" if $ret; 
} else { die "Somebody musta reaped my gunzip process: $!"; } 
if( waitpid $t_pid, 0 ) { 
    my ($sig, $ret) = ($? & 255, $? >> 8); 
    die "tar died from signal $sig" if $sig; 
    die "tar exited with code $ret" if $ret; 
} else { die "Somebody musta reaped my tar process: $!"; } 
END: { 
    kill SIGKILL => $g_pid, $t_pid; 
} 
__END__