Create a gzipped tar archive

tar czvf archive files-to-backup

Extract a gzipped tar archive

tar xzvf archive files-to-backup

Create a bzipped tar archive

tar cjvf archive files-to-backup

Extract a bzipped tar archive

tar xjvf archive files-to-backup

List files in a tar archive

tar tf archive

Create a cpio archive

ls /dir/* | cpio -ov > archive.cpio

Extract a cpio archive

cpio -ivd < archive.cpio

List files in a cpio archive

cpio -it < archive.cpio