====== GNU tar ======

===== compress =====
<code bash>tar caf /path/to/archive.tgz /path/to/folder/</code>

==== files in /etc =====
<code bash>tar cvaT include.txt -f files_$(date +%Y-%m-%d).tlz</code>

===== extract =====
<code bash>tar xavf files_$(date +%Y-%m-%d).tlz -C /</code>

===== transfer tar over ssh =====
For many small files, transferring them over [[ssh|ssh]] or even with [[rsync|rsync]] can take ages. You can use the following command to pack them into a stream and transfer them to your PC:

<code bash>ssh user@source.example.com tar cf - /path/to/remote/source | tar xvf - -C /path/to/local/target</code>

This will not create one connection for each file, but instead use a pipe through SSH to maximise I/O.

If you want to transfer files from your local PC to the remote server, you can do this the other way round:

<code bash>tar cvf - /path/to/local/source | ssh user@target.example.com tar xvf - -C /path/to/remote/target</code>

===== Show files in archive =====

<code bash>tar taf files.tlz</code>