function getFileContents($file)
    {
        if ($this->_archiveFile == $this->_packageFile) { // unpacked
            $dir = dirname($this->_packageFile);
            $file = $dir . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $file;
            $file = str_replace(array('/', '\\'),
                array(DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR), $file);
            if (file_exists($file) && is_readable($file)) {
                return implode('', file($file));
            }
        } else { // tgz
            if (!class_exists('Archive_Tar')) {
                require_once 'Archive/Tar.php';
            }
            $tar = &new Archive_Tar($this->_archiveFile);
            $tar->pushErrorHandling(PEAR_ERROR_RETURN);
            if ($file != 'package.xml' && $file != 'package2.xml') {
                $file = $this->getPackage() . '-' . $this->getVersion() . '/' . $file;
            }
            $file = $tar->extractInString($file);
            $tar->popErrorHandling();
            if (PEAR::isError($file)) {
                return PEAR::raiseError("Cannot locate file '$file' in archive");
            }
            return $file;
        }
    }