Create a new tar archive.
$ tar cvf archive_name.tar dirname/
Extract from an existing tar archive.
$ tar xvf archive_name.tar
View an existing tar archive.
$ tar tvf archive_name.tar
# tar cvzf MyImages-14-09-12.tar.gz /home/MyImages
OR
# tar cvzf MyImages-14-09-12.tgz /home/MyImages