Re: [TCLUG:18702] SQOTD (simple Q. of the day)

["Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom" <carls@agritech.com>]

>So, what would I type to archive a users's entire home directory into a
>tar.gz?

here's what I wrote up for docs at work:

tar czvf <device or file name> <directory of files you wish to
archive>
        this command means:
        tar = TApe aRchive
        c = create archive
        z = compress archive
        v = verbose (lists the files being archived as it processes
them)
        f = specifies the device or file to archive to, in this case:
        <device or file name>= something like /dev/st0 (for SCSI
tape), or /dev/fd0 (to tar directly to floppy; which saves you the
trouble of having to mount the floppy; but you won't be able to read
it without untarring from floppy), or username.tgz, or
username.tar.gz, or just 'username' (tho I believe it will append .tgz
to the end in that case).
        <directory of files> = specify here which files you wish to
archive. in your case, /home/username.

note that a lot of books tell you to put a '-' before the tar options;
but this doesn't work with GNUtar. (someone please clarify why? it has
something to do with POSIX options).

Carl Soderstrom
_________________________________________
Systems Administrator    307 Brighton Ave. 
Minnesota DHIA	         Buffalo, MN	
carls@agritech.com       (763) 682-1091