====== Compress and Extract Entire Directory Tree With Tar ======
\\
(//This assumes you are using [[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=tar+%21man|tar]] in Linux or Cygwin.//)

First, open a terminal/bash session.

Change to the root directory you want to compress, then issue this command:

<code bash>
tar -cvzf archive_name.tgz *
</code>

To extract the archive file, copy it to an empty directory, then issue this command:

<code bash>
tar -xvf archive_name.tgz
</code>