diff --git a/libtar/handle.c b/libtar/handle.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ae974b9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/libtar/handle.c
@@ -0,0 +1,129 @@
+/*
+**  Copyright 1998-2003 University of Illinois Board of Trustees
+**  Copyright 1998-2003 Mark D. Roth
+**  All rights reserved.
+**
+**  handle.c - libtar code for initializing a TAR handle
+**
+**  Mark D. Roth <roth@uiuc.edu>
+**  Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services
+**  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
+*/
+
+#include <internal.h>
+
+#include <stdio.h>
+#include <fcntl.h>
+#include <errno.h>
+
+#ifdef HAVE_UNISTD_H
+# include <unistd.h>
+#endif
+
+#ifdef STDC_HEADERS
+# include <stdlib.h>
+#endif
+
+
+const char libtar_version[] = PACKAGE_VERSION;
+
+static tartype_t default_type = { open, close, read, write };
+
+
+static int
+tar_init(TAR **t, char *pathname, tartype_t *type,
+	 int oflags, int mode, int options)
+{
+	if ((oflags & O_ACCMODE) == O_RDWR)
+	{
+		errno = EINVAL;
+		return -1;
+	}
+
+	*t = (TAR *)calloc(1, sizeof(TAR));
+	if (*t == NULL)
+		return -1;
+
+	(*t)->pathname = pathname;
+	(*t)->options = options;
+	(*t)->type = (type ? type : &default_type);
+	(*t)->oflags = oflags;
+
+	if ((oflags & O_ACCMODE) == O_RDONLY)
+		(*t)->h = libtar_hash_new(256,
+					  (libtar_hashfunc_t)path_hashfunc);
+	else
+		(*t)->h = libtar_hash_new(16, (libtar_hashfunc_t)dev_hash);
+	if ((*t)->h == NULL)
+	{
+		free(*t);
+		return -1;
+	}
+
+	return 0;
+}
+
+
+/* open a new tarfile handle */
+int
+tar_open(TAR **t, char *pathname, tartype_t *type,
+	 int oflags, int mode, int options)
+{
+	if (tar_init(t, pathname, type, oflags, mode, options) == -1)
+		return -1;
+
+	if ((options & TAR_NOOVERWRITE) && (oflags & O_CREAT))
+		oflags |= O_EXCL;
+
+#ifdef O_BINARY
+	oflags |= O_BINARY;
+#endif
+
+	(*t)->fd = (*((*t)->type->openfunc))(pathname, oflags, mode);
+	if ((*t)->fd == -1)
+	{
+		free(*t);
+		return -1;
+	}
+
+	return 0;
+}
+
+
+int
+tar_fdopen(TAR **t, int fd, char *pathname, tartype_t *type,
+	   int oflags, int mode, int options)
+{
+	if (tar_init(t, pathname, type, oflags, mode, options) == -1)
+		return -1;
+
+	(*t)->fd = fd;
+	return 0;
+}
+
+
+int
+tar_fd(TAR *t)
+{
+	return t->fd;
+}
+
+
+/* close tarfile handle */
+int
+tar_close(TAR *t)
+{
+	int i;
+
+	i = (*(t->type->closefunc))(t->fd);
+
+	if (t->h != NULL)
+		libtar_hash_free(t->h, ((t->oflags & O_ACCMODE) == O_RDONLY
+					? free
+					: (libtar_freefunc_t)tar_dev_free));
+	free(t);
+
+	return i;
+}
+
+