Using tar for backups: Was "backing up kmail"

[Donn]

>     tar -cvf 0_tarfiles/dotfiles.tar .??*
Nice. *makes a note*

And here, just for the alternative idea, is a find example:
find . -name *.png -exec tar vrf name.tar "{}" \;
That would find all pngs and tar them up -- without filename "issues" re 
spaces etc. I'm sure it can be changed to swoop upon entire directory 
structures like your for...in loop.

>     du -sk 0_tarfiles
>     to see just how large a media you need or multiple media discs.
>
And if you want that in "human" :
du -sh blahblah
I love the command line :)

>     And for those in the know you can use the backup media with tar -d
>     option to verify that the info on the hard drive matches the media.
>
*makes another note*

> You ask "Why all the trouble?".  I'm guaranteed the files/directories
> retrieved in this way have the permissions the way they were on the hard
> drive at the time of the archival.
>
Sweet. Thanks.

/d