Tar will compress and also recurse down directories. My personal favorite flags for that type of operation are -cvf, where it will create, and use verbose output. Depending on the tar filename, it will compress. For instance if you say "result.tar.bz2" it will compress to a bz2 style file. If you say "result.tar.zip", it will compress to a zip style file. I haven't experimented much and usually use bz2, but also use zip for those needing to look at it easily with Windows systems even though most modern Windows will seem to recognize bz2. Other variations such as 7z I have not tried.

My best suggestion is to always stage that in a command line first to validate that you get what you desire. Don't just jump in and assume the .zip extension works, try it out and also transfer that file to a destination system where you wish to re-read it. Or whichever extension you end up choosing.

Note that there used to be a -z flag for tar, and it probably still accepts it but ignores it silently. It might be useful for you to check the version of tar you have, check the manual page for the tar you have and verify that it will work in the manners I'm describing.

UPDATE...Ok I got it partially working. Here is the code again:
When I select #1, I get this error:
But when I select #2 it works, but looking at the output it seems to have compressed these folders twice:
01062017
01042017
01032017
01012017
01022017
01052017
which of course nothing should have been compressed.

Any help is highly appreciated!

-mtime 182 finds files modified exactly 182 days ago. Since there is not an option +mtime your results are not valid.

-mtime n (n*24 hours)

+n for greater than n,
-n for less than n,
n for exactly n.

If you want to go by mtime you will need to specify a range but you need to calculate the days based upon the current date. If today was 12/31 then something like the following would find files between Jan 1 - Jun 30 (I did not calculate exact days...)

-mtime +182 –mtime -365

You can find files based upon the file name using wildcard expansion. Although it isn't pretty and others might have a better idea.

find . -maxdepth 1 -name "0[0-6]*"

To specify a year
find . -maxdepth 1 -name "0[0-6]??YYYY"

Would find all files/directories in the current working directory from Jan - Jun assuming they were named MMDDYYYY.

For July-August
find . -maxdepth 1 -name "0[7-9]*"
For Sept-Dec
find . -maxdepth 1 -name "1[0-2]*"

July-Dec would need 3 commands i.e two to create append the tar file and a separate command to compress.

I know that some of these commands can be confusing and in most cases you can find decent help and examples.

Too confusing to me. I came up with a better idea. How can I compress folders( named like 01012017,02012017,etc ) based only on the first 2 digits (the month)?

Like for instance to only compress folders where the range is from 01****** to 06******

Would this work?

I believe one * should be sufficient. If you wish to mandate that you have exactly 6 digits following the 01 or 06 terms, there are regex expressions which you can use; however you'd also have to account for additional non-digits following the remainder of the dates.

This is the code I used:
ans this is the error I got:

There's a syntax error in your find command. I know there are shortcuts; however I always use:and you cannot use the AND to combine search terms.

This would either be six find commands, one for each month, or using a -since or date qualifier to capture the files since your last backup.

Once again, I know there are highly particular requirements. I'm remembering that this is to back up information you've generated on the behalf of a company you work for in some manner.

Personally I'd reorganize files once they'd been backed up. Make my backup and then move the backed up files to an "old" sub-directory or something similar.

If things are so restricted that you cannot move files, such as you're not allowed to move files, and this company is so very highly specific about everything, then I question whether or not you should be keeping any copies.

I've worked as a contractor for highly restrictive employers, such as government contractors, and you're not supposed to take any IP out of their shop at all. Not allowed. Then again, the security restrictions were sufficient such that if I tried to take out a drive of any type, it would be a problem, let alone bring in anything capable of storage.

If this is a commercial company, or something more serious such as aviation or power grid, things like that where once again they have protected systems. Same thing. I would not be keeping any personal records.

This "sounds" as if you're generating status reports and you wish to keep a copy. So ... keep a copy on another system, this laptop you mention, and back that up however best works for you.

As stated you have to specify each month which can be done using or. Not tested but should work.

I tried this code and nothing returns but I do not want to use OR, I want to pick the folders from Jan(01*) to Jun(06*):

I also tried this code;
and got this error:

In my previously post there was not a space between the last " and \ i.e. "06*"\) vs "06*" \) which caused a syntax error.

If the current working directory contains the subdirectories as named above the command returns the results as listed.

Completed successfully and listing its contents.

After placing .xlsx files in the months of '02', '01' and '06' it appears that the code below works:
Thank you everyone for your help

I just think everything is possible