How do I select destination directory for tar command
 

Hello,

I'm wanting to tar a folder called "mysite" to the destination directory: /var/backups/

I'm trying to issue the following command:

However, it's ending up with:

taI've checked and confirmed that /var/backups/ is a valid directory.

Would really appreciate some help on this, pls.

Lots of help can be found by searching the web but the basic syntax is:

tar options -f archive_name directory-name

Where directory-name is the directory of the files to be archived and not the destination for the tar file. The -C option basically performs a cd to that directory.

So I assume this is what you are trying to accomplish.

tar -C /var/backups/ -zcf mysite_$(date +%y%m%d).tar.gz /var/www/mysite/

I would just omit the -C option (in fact I am doing that in my backup script) and run the command this way:

Basically what I want to do is, to tar the mysite folder "/var/backup/mysite" into a file called mysite_yymmdd.tar.gz which sould be available in /var/backups/

That is exactly what the command I posted does.

Mine too :)

That gives an absolute pathname in the tarfile (/var/www/mysite/) I assume the -C was to make that relative (.) .