shrinking backup files

[Raphaël Berbain]

* Hal Davison:

> Well bro..8GB ain't going on one CD...:)
>
> When using tar you can use: tar czPf etc.tar.gz /etc
>
> The z instructs tar to do the compression thing.

Not sure if you are answering me or the OP, but anyway: Unless your
original data is seriously crunch friendly, I doubt any kind of
compression is going to make 8 GiB fit on a single CD.

As for cdbackup, it can split your data on multiple CDs, which is why
I mentioned it in the first place.  tar <...> | cdbackup -m <...>,
feed blank CD when asked, and there goes your backup.