Lets say I have a folder on c:\ and I want to tar archive it's contents including sub-directories what would the command line be?

This is the tar help file:

Main operation mode:
-t, --list list the contents of an archive
-x, --extract, --get extract files from an archive
-c, --create create a new archive
-d, --diff, --compare find differences between archive and file system
-r, --append append files to the end of an archive
-u, --update only append files newer than copy in archive
-A, --catenate append tar files to an archive
--concatenate same as -A
--delete delete from the archive (not on mag tapes!)

Operation modifiers:
-W, --verify attempt to verify the archive after writing it
--remove-files remove files after adding them to the archive
-k, --keep-old-files don't overwrite existing files when extracting
-U, --unlink-first remove each file prior to extracting over it
--recursive-unlink empty hierarchies prior to extracting directory
-S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
-O, --to-stdout extract files to standard output
-G, --incremental handle old GNU-format incremental backup
-g, --listed-incremental handle new GNU-format incremental backup
--ignore-failed-read do not exit with nonzero on unreadable files

Handling of file attributes:
--owner=NAME force NAME as owner for added files
--group=NAME force NAME as group for added files
--mode=CHANGES force (symbolic) mode CHANGES for added files
--atime-preserve don't change access times on dumped files
-m, --modification-time don't extract file modified time
--same-owner try extracting files with the same ownership
--numeric-owner always use numbers for user/group names
-p, --same-permissions extract all protection information
--preserve-permissions same as -p
-s, --same-order sort names to extract to match archive
--preserve-order same as -s
--preserve same as both -p and -s

Device selection and switching:
-f, --file=ARCHIVE use archive file or device ARCHIVE
--force-local archive file is local even if has a colon
--rsh-command=COMMAND use remote COMMAND instead of rsh
-[0-7][lmh] specify drive and density
-M, --multi-volume create/list/extract multi-volume archive
-L, --tape-length=NUM change tape after writing NUM x 1024 bytes
-F, --info-script=FILE run script at end of each tape (implies -M)
--new-volume-script=FILE same as -F FILE
--volno-file=FILE use/update the volume number in FILE

Device blocking:
-b, --blocking-factor=BLOCKS BLOCKS x 512 bytes per record
--record-size=SIZE SIZE bytes per record, multiple of 512
-i, --ignore-zeros ignore zeroed blocks in archive (means EOF)
-B, --read-full-records reblock as we read (for 4.2BSD pipes)

Archive format selection:
-V, --label=NAME create archive with volume name NAME
PATTERN at list/extract time, a globbing PATTERN
-o, --old-archive, --portability write a V7 format archive
--posix write a POSIX conformant archive
-z, --gzip, --ungzip filter the archive through gzip
-Z, --compress, --uncompress filter the archive through compress
--use-compress-program=PROG filter through PROG (must accept -d)

Local file selection:
-C, --directory=DIR change to directory DIR
-T, --files-from=NAME get names to extract or create from file NAME
--null -T reads null-terminated names, disable -C
--exclude=PATTERN exclude files, given as a globbing PATTERN
-X, --exclude-from=FILE exclude globbing patterns listed in FILE
-P, --absolute-names don't strip leading `/'s from file names
-h, --dereference dump instead the files symlinks point to
--no-recursion avoid descending automatically in directories
-l, --one-file-system stay in local file system when creating archive
-K, --starting-file=NAME begin at file NAME in the archive
-N, --newer=DATE only store files newer than DATE
--newer-mtime compare date and time when data changed only
--after-date=DATE same as -N
--backup[=CONTROL] backup before removal, choose version control
--suffix=SUFFIX backup before removel, override usual suffix

Informative output:
--help print this help, then exit
--version print tar program version number, then exit
-v, --verbose verbosely list files processed
--checkpoint print directory names while reading the archive
--totals print total bytes written while creating archive
-R, --block-number show block number within archive with each message
-w, --interactive ask for confirmation for every action
--confirmation same as -w

Thanks/pc

I am no expert, but when I tar stuff I usually do something along the lines of: tar -cvzf <archive name> <what to tar>. So in your case you might go to your working directory and then do "tar -cvzf myfiles.tar.gz *"
Again, I am no expert, and am not sure if that will grab the folders as well, but its worth a try right? :)

This is correct....as long as the directory name is in the archive name space, it'll tar everything underneath it

tar -cvpzf <archive name> <what to tar>


i usually add "p" to retain the permissions

Thank you for your help.
I found that Windows Commander has built in support for creating tar archives, weather or not it does it 100% correctly I don't know.