def unpack_tarfile(filename, extract_dir, progress_filter=default_filter):
    """Unpack tar/tar.gz/tar.bz2 `filename` to `extract_dir`

    Raises ``UnrecognizedFormat`` if `filename` is not a tarfile (as determined
    by ``tarfile.open()``).  See ``unpack_archive()`` for an explanation
    of the `progress_filter` argument.
    """
    try:
        tarobj = tarfile.open(filename)
    except tarfile.TarError:
        raise UnrecognizedFormat(
            "%s is not a compressed or uncompressed tar file" % (filename,)
        )
    with contextlib.closing(tarobj):
        # don't do any chowning!
        tarobj.chown = lambda *args: None
        for member in tarobj:
            name = member.name
            # don't extract absolute paths or ones with .. in them
            if not name.startswith('/') and '..' not in name.split('/'):
                prelim_dst = os.path.join(extract_dir, *name.split('/'))

                # resolve any links and to extract the link targets as normal
                # files
                while member is not None and (member.islnk() or member.issym()):
                    linkpath = member.linkname
                    if member.issym():
                        base = posixpath.dirname(member.name)
                        linkpath = posixpath.join(base, linkpath)
                        linkpath = posixpath.normpath(linkpath)
                    member = tarobj._getmember(linkpath)

                if member is not None and (member.isfile() or member.isdir()):
                    final_dst = progress_filter(name, prelim_dst)
                    if final_dst:
                        if final_dst.endswith(os.sep):
                            final_dst = final_dst[:-1]
                        try:
                            # XXX Ugh
                            tarobj._extract_member(member, final_dst)
                        except tarfile.ExtractError:
                            # chown/chmod/mkfifo/mknode/makedev failed
                            pass
        return True