Linux Packing Tools

Zipping a Subversion Directory
This command specifically excludes subversion files:

$ zip -r name.zip path/to/dir/ -x \*.svn\*

zip vs. gzip vs. bzip2
The object was to pack a lot of text files (maildir files). /|\ BEST  |   4176573 tmp/mail.tar.bz2 |  4335433 tmp/mail.tar.gz                             |__ same result! |  4335554 tmp/mail.tar.zip   <- first tar, then zip   | |  4696810 tmp/mail.zip       <- all files zipped individually with 'zip -r tmp/mail.zip mail' WORST |  10731520 tmp/mail.tar \|/

Using tar with bzip2 yielded the best results.

packing method
These 2 methods yield exactly the same results: $ tar -cO file1 file2 | bzip2 >files.tar.bz2         <- pipe through bzip2 $ tar -cf files2.tar file1 file2 && bzip2 files2.tar <- create file and then call bzip2 $ diff -s files.tar.bz2 files2.tar.bz2 Files files2.tar.bz2 and files.tar.bzip2 are identical