tar question ...

[Jim Stratton]

I bet there is a simple answer to this tar question, but after having RTFM,
I can't figure out a solution.  In order to make my backups smaller in 
size, I compress the tar image using something like this:
      	tar cf - [files] | compress -c >/tmp/xxx
      	cd /tmp; tar c xxx; rm xxx
Unfortunately, this method requires that I maintain enough free disk space to 
hold the /tmp/xxx file.  What I want to do is pipe the output of compress
directly into tar, avoiding the tmp file altogether.  Something like:
	tar cf - [files] | compress -c | tar c ...
Anyone know what flags I can use to convince tar that I want it to backup  
from standard input?
As an alternative to tar, I've tried piping compress to dd but always get
an error writing to the output device.

I am running Xenix/386 2.3.1 if it matters.
Thanks for any and all help!

- Jim Stratton		stratton at hpcupt1.hp.com