How to manage tar files when creating incremental backups

Question

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?

Answer 1

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