$blocksize = 4096;

  open( BACKUP, "tar cz $directory |" ) or die "can't fork tar: $!\n";
  binmode BACKUP; # just to be on the safe side

  do {  
    $read = read( BACKUP, $data, $blocksize ) or die "can't read: $!\n";
    if ($read) {
      print $data;
    };
  } while $read;

  close BACKUP;