Hi James,

...

tar c $(find / -name *.conf) | ssh host.com "gzip -c > file.tar.gz"

Thank you very much, this worked. I have two supplementary questions. First, what is the significance of the $() construct in bash and how does it interact with tar? Does it take the place of standard input based on its position in the utility call?

In this command, the $() construct is used to return files via find to the command line for tar. It's most often used to assign variables with the value of returned commands. ie FOO=$(netstat), where by $FOO is now assigned the output of netstat. Since this is a remote command, it's neccessary to do it this way. If you were running this locally only, these two commands would be identical:

tar -cvf foobar.tar `find / -name *.conf` tar -cvf foobar.tar $(find / -name *.conf)

Second, is there a way to exclude certain file names from matching that otherwise do? I have tried:

$(find / -name /*.conf && !*.so.conf)

There sure is, but try something like this instead:

tar c $(find / -name *.conf -not -name *.so.conf) | ssh host.com "gzip -c > file.tar.gz"

Cheers, -Joshua