. To create an archive file use the command: tar cvf tarfile_name .tar filenames ( directory_name ) . The command options cvf modify the way the tar command works. See the manual page for details. By convention the name of a tarfile archive ends in .tar . When you create a tarfile of a directory all the subdirectories are added; this can result in very large tarfiles. These should be compressed to reduce their size. Tip ... Examples .