This might be a question more suited to Server/Linux Guru types but I thought possibly some programmers using Perl might have run into this problem.

Anyway, on a Redhat Linux server I am trying to run a cron script weekly to tar up miscellaneous files which accumulate in a specific directory. When I use this code,

system("tar -cf tarred_orders.$year$month$mday.tar temp");
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I get an error message because the temp directory which I am attempting to tar up isn’t in the directory where the script is running.

Then when I try to put a path in the command to show the script where the temp directory is,

system("tar -cf tarred_orders.$year$month$mday.tar /project/server_nam
+e/web/catalog/orders/temp");
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the script finds the files and tars them up. However, when I untar the tar file, the whole directory structure, starting at the root, is created in the directory where the script is running, so my tarred files end up here:

/project/server_name/bin/cron/project/server_name/web/catalog/orders/t
+emp/.
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Does anyone know how to make a system call using Perl on a Linux server so that when the tar file is opened, it will simply place the files in the directory where the tar file was located without creating the directory structure?

Thanks!

update (broquaint): added formatting

update (broquaint): title change (was Linux/Perl Tar System Command)