12.3 Backing Up, Compressing, and Restoring Files
12.3.4 Backing up and compressing the home directory
Since most work is done in a user's home directory, system administrators often schedule these directories for backup on a nightly basis. If the system administrator is not backing up your home directory, it is good practice to perform a regular nightly backup of changing data. This section describes the process used to archive your home directory files to a tar file and then compress it. The Figure summarizes the steps necessary to accomplish this. The section following this one describes how to restore the files that were backed and compressed.