# tar
# GNU version of the tar archiving utility

# An approach to backing up the current user's HOME, using tar(1) and Gzip
# compression. Permissions (modes) will be preserved. The filename format will
# be: UID:GID_DATE.tgz
#
# Replace 'DEVICE' with whichever device is applicable to you, but note that it
# must be in the '/media/USER' (where USER is the username) directory, else
# this won't work, unless you edit the formatting section of `printf`.
tar -czvpf "$(printf '/media/%s/%s/%d:%d_%(%F)T.tgz' "$USER" 'DEVICE' ${UID:-`id -u`} ${GID:-`id -g`} -1)" "$HOME"

# Delete file 'xdm' from the archive given to the `-f` flag. This only works on
# non-compressed archives, unfortunately, but those can always be uncompressed
# first, then altered with the `--delete` flag, after which you can recompress.
tar --delete -f xdm_edited.tar.gz xdm

# Extract the contents of the given archive (which is not compressed) to the
# destination given to the `-C` flag; not many seem to know of this flag.
#
# If a destination (path given to `-C`) is not provided, the CWD will be used.
tar -C /mnt -xvf Tarball.tar