1
To limit the focus of the question, I'm going to say using Linux as the OS, and tar as the compression format. Clearly run-time is important, but knowing the archive is valid is more important. If providing a command-line, please also link to the documentation for it, and within your answer explain each segment of the command.
3Just a small comment, but I'm pretty sure that tar does not really compress the files by default (I don't think) ... it just balls them all together. I know that some versions have built-in GZIP compression, but by default they usually just build an archive file. – Marc Reside – 2011-03-10T20:03:25.463
+1 @Marc Reside: That's in fact a great point, I'd noticed "tar.gzip" before, but never knew tar just forced directories/files into one file. – blunders – 2011-03-10T20:09:52.427
I've been recently playing with the TAR and GZIP file formats in order to better understand them. I'll try to give you an answer for your question in a bit ... I'm making sure I have my facts straight. :) EDIT Nevermind, it looks like M'vy gave a good answer. – Marc Reside – 2011-03-10T20:14:23.583