Backup and entire dir using tar?

[Martin Schmitz]

Bob Nielsen wrote:
>> to create:
>>   tar -cvf backup.tar   directory_to_backup
>> 
>> to extract:
>>  tar -xvf backup.tar
> 
> The question was about tar.gz, so that would change to
> 
>  to create:
>    tar -cvzf backup.tar.gz   directory_to_backup
> 
>  to extract:
>   tar -xvzf backup.tar.gz

Why the hell everybody suggests 'v' with tar. In my opinion it's almost
always a very bad idea. If there are error messages you won't see them!

Martin