At Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:30:51 -0400 CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> wrote: > > Hi, > > On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 17:23, James Matthews <nytrokiss at gmail.com> wrote: > > How do you get bzip2 to compress directories? > > You use "tar" to create a tar with the directory contents, and then > bzip2 to compress that tarfile. > > You can use the "-j" option of tar to bzip2 on the fly. > > This is probably what you want: > > $ tar -cvjf filename.tar.bz2 dirname/ > > Replace "filename" and "dirname" with something that is appropriate to you. Note that is also possible to use dump or cpio as well. Unlike the MS-Windows zip/unzip, which combines compressing and archiving in a single program, the 'UNIX' way is to separate these functions. bzip2 only compresses. Other programs (tar, dump, cpio) create archives -- bundle a group of files and/or directory trees into a single file. > > HTH, > Filipe > _______________________________________________ > CentOS mailing list > CentOS at centos.org > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos > > -- Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933 Deepwoods Software -- Download the Model Railroad System http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Binaries for Linux and MS-Windows heller at deepsoft.com -- http://www.deepsoft.com/ModelRailroadSystem/