Using tar and gzip

To tar a list of files/directories, do

tar -cf mytar.tar file1 file2 dir3 file4

To add more files to this, do

tar -rf mytar.tar file5 dir6 dir7

To list the contents of the tar, do
tar -tf mytar.r
To delete files from the tar, list the contents, do

tar --delete -f mytar.tar file1 dir2

using the exact path as given in the `list contents' step.

To compress the tar, do

gzip -c mytar.tar > mytar.tar.gz

To decompress the file, do

gunzip -c mytar.tar.gz > mytar.tar

To extract files from the tar, do

tar -xf mytar.tar file2 dir3

To extract everything, do

tar -xf mytar.tar

To simultaneously tar and compress, do

tar -czf mytar.tar.gz file1 dir2 file3

To simultaneously decompress and extract, do

tar -xzf mytar.tar.gz

(Note: Additions, using tar -rf, are not allowed for compressed tar files)