Hi Any idea how I can selectively backup certain type of files using tar (or otherwise) For example, (don't shoot me for this) *.doc, *.xls, *.pub files. I'm trying to backup users home directories which inevitably contain loads of cr4p making the size of the archive balloon. This is the kind of thing I'm using currently. Obviously, repeated for each directory and filetype I want to backup. tar -cvf backup /etc /usr/bin/find /export/home/ -name *.doc -newer /etc/last.backup -exec tar -rvf backup {} \; The script is getting longer and longer as I add new filetypes. Am I missing something obvious? Can I feed find or tar multiple arguments ie the file types? All help much appreciated....it's doing my head in!! -- Mike Rees Ysgol Glanymor School Heol Elfed Burry Port Llanelli Carms SA16 0AL