tar cvf - . | (cd /root/; tar xvf -)
Plz explain what hyphen and dot symbols mean .

The periods or dots indicate the present working directory.

- = stdout/stdin

The first hyphen means output goes to stdout. The output is then piped to the second command where tar reads it from stdin. Actually the command can be shortened since "-" is the default:

tar c . | (cd /root/; tar xv )

This is all nicely explained in man tar.

ok so - is stdout.
I still can't understand why the second part is enclosed in ()

Do you even know what this command is doing? Have you even run it yet?

Plz tell me, it isn't very easy to find the meanings of (cd /root tar xf -)

tar cvf - .
creates a tar archive of the current directory and sends the output to stdout

|
redirects the output to the following command

( )
opens a subshell in which

cd /root/; tar xvf -
is executed: changes to directory /root and unpacks the tar archive that is read from stdin

Now go and read man bash (or whatever shell you are using) and man tar!!!

tar cvf - . | (cd /root/; tar xvf -)

tar = Stands for "tape archive" This is a legacy-name for when mag tape was king of backup.
c = 'create' (as opposed to extract)
v = 'verbose'. You can miss this out but it won't tell you which files are being worked on.
f = means specify a file to use as the device. Remember, everything in linux is a 'file' so
the beauty of linux (and unix) is that what works with a specical file like a tape device
will also work for any file - including an entry in a block-special filesystem or a the special
file stdout which is used next in this case.
- = 'stdout' This is the default output for all programs. It is usually - but not allways the
screen. Typically, stdout is 'piped' to another program for further processing.
. = 'current directory'. Therefore this whole comman is context dependent. You must have done a cd
into the desired directory before executing it.
| = 'redirect stdout' to 'stdin' of the following program.
() = create a new shell. Thus the stdin of the tar command is fed to a new shell. Inside this shell,
you can do a whole load of commands.
cd /root/ = 'change directory (inside this subshell only) to a new place - this is the destination
of the backup)
; = 'end of this line - what follows is a new command as if you pressed RETURN first.'
tar xvf - = 'rn tar again' but this time x means eXtract. 'f' has the same meansing, but this time '-'
means stdin'

By the way, this command could be rewritten as:
The -C option to tar specifies what the working directory for that invocation of tar should be.

Hello guys...
I use this once in a while - lost my cheat sheet - glad you guys have it as a google hit..

Mater - that's the shortest version I've ever seen - cool...

But you forgot the DOT

tar c . | tar x -C /dir

Thanks again...

Hello all,

I like setting up no password handshaking between servers, such as for a migration, then run the following from any directory. Most of the time I will set up the script to run after hours in cron for each directory I want to move:

tar cf - . | ssh <servername> "cd /path-to-dir; tar xf -"

I hope this helps someone