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1. Shell Scripts
One of the simplest ways to backup a system is using a shell script. For example, a script can be used to configure which directories to backup, and pass those directories as arguments to the tar utility, which creates an archive file. The archive file can then be moved or copied to another location. The archive can also be created on a remote file system such as an NFS mount.
The tar utility creates one archive file out of many files or directories. tar can also filter the files through compression utilities, thus reducing the size of the archive file.