cli-tarHow can I make tar archives rsyncable with gzip compression?

Using rsync and gzip together is an efficient way to create tar archives that can be synchronized between two locations. The basic command for this is as follows:

rsync -avz --compress-level=9 <source_dir> <destination_dir>

This command will compress the files in the <source_dir> directory with gzip and then transfer them to the <destination_dir> directory using rsync.

The -a flag stands for "archive mode" and preserves the original file permissions, ownership, and timestamps. The -v flag stands for "verbose" and will output what files are being transferred. The -z flag stands for "compress" and will compress the files before transferring them.

The --compress-level flag specifies the level of compression used by gzip. A value of 9 is the highest level of compression and is recommended for most cases.

In addition, tar can be used to create an archive of the source directory before transferring it. This can be done with the following command:

tar -czvf <archive_name>.tar.gz <source_dir>

The -c flag stands for "create" and will create an archive. The -z flag stands for "compress" and will compress the archive with gzip. The -v flag stands for "verbose" and will output the files being added to the archive. The -f flag stands for "file" and specifies the name of the archive.

Once the archive is created, it can be transferred to the destination directory using rsync:

rsync -avz <archive_name>.tar.gz <destination_dir>

This command will transfer the archive to the <destination_dir> directory using rsync.

Code explanation

**

• rsync -avz --compress-level=9 <source_dir> <destination_dir>: Compresses the files in the <source_dir> directory with gzip and then transfers them to the <destination_dir> directory using rsync.
• tar -czvf <archive_name>.tar.gz <source_dir>: Creates an archive of the <source_dir> directory and compresses it with gzip.
• rsync -avz <archive_name>.tar.gz <destination_dir>: Transfers the archive to the <destination_dir> directory using rsync.

## Helpful links

• rsync Documentation
• tar Documentation

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