How to manage tar files when creating incremental backups I use incremental backup using tar --create --file=/home/blueray/Documents/backup/dest/$(date +%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M-%S).tar --listed-incremental=/home/blueray/Documents/backup/dest/usr.snar /home/blueray/Documents/backup/src But the problem is, 1. it create too many `.tar` files as i backup multiple times a day. For example `2021-11-23-23-34-38.tar`, `2021-11-23-23-34-43.tar` . I am not understanding whether to merge or delete older tar files. 2. How will I extract the tar files with minimum effort (expected a single command). 3. Find a specific file to extract. What can be the solution for this problem. Is it even worth investing time in tar , given my requirements?

1. It is normal to have a multiple backup version, if you delete the old tar file you can not extract/restore from it anymore.

2. in order to extract you can issue the below command:

tar --extract --verbose --verbose --listed-incremental=/dev/null --file=2021-11-23-23-34-38.tar


I suppose here you want to restore from the file " 2021-11-23-23-34-38.tar "

3. Regarding your 3rd point in order to find a specific file to extract you can list

tar --list --verbose --verbose --listed-incremental=/home/blueray/Documents/backup/dest/usr.snar --file=2021-11-23-23-34-38.tar