diff -up perl-5.10.0/lib/Archive/Extract.pm.BAD perl-5.10.0/lib/Archive/Extract.pm
--- perl-5.10.0/lib/Archive/Extract.pm.BAD	2009-03-10 15:25:06.000000000 -0400
+++ perl-5.10.0/lib/Archive/Extract.pm	2009-03-10 15:25:11.000000000 -0400
@@ -550,12 +550,19 @@ sub _untar_bin {
                              $self->bin_tar, '-tf', '-'] :
             [$self->bin_tar, '-tf', $self->archive];
 
-        ### run the command ###
+        ### run the command
+        ### newer versions of 'tar' (1.21 and up) now print record size
+        ### to STDERR as well if v OR t is given (used to be both). This
+        ### is a 'feature' according to the changelog, so we must now only
+        ### inspect STDOUT, otherwise, failures like these occur:
+        ### nntp.perl.org/group/perl.cpan.testers/2009/02/msg3230366.html 
         my $buffer = '';
-        unless( scalar run( command => $cmd,
+        my @out     = run(  command => $cmd, 
                             buffer  => \$buffer,
-                            verbose => $DEBUG )
-        ) {
+                            verbose => $DEBUG ); 
+
+        ### command was unsuccessful
+        unless( $out[0] ) { 
             return $self->_error(loc(
                             "Error listing contents of archive '%1': %2",
                             $self->archive, $buffer ));
@@ -578,7 +585,8 @@ sub _untar_bin {
                                             \s+ [\d,.]+ \s tape \s blocks
                                         |x ? $1 : $_);
 
-                    } split $/, $buffer;
+                    ### only STDOUT, see above 
+                    } map { split $/, $_ } @{$out[3]};
 
             ### store the files that are in the archive ###
             $self->files(\@files);