#!/bin/bash
## Tar archives are used to collate multiple files and/or directories into a single file. They are also often compressed to reduce file size, such as with bz2.
## Tar is a standard UNIX program that can be used to both archive and compress, which will use the extension: .tar.bz2. Tar can also then be used to extract the files from an already made Tar archive, such as are often provided by sequencing facilities.

## Tar Variables
archive_file=/full/path/to/file.tar.bz2              ## Tar File to Extract From.
input_files=/full/path/to/*                          ## Input Files to Include in Archive.

## Comment (##) and uncomment the below based on whether Tar archive extraction or creation is needed. Extraction uses "-x" parameter and creation uses "-c" parameter. For creation, use "-j" parameter to specify .bz2 compression.

## Tar Archive File Extraction
tar -xvf $archive_file

## Tar Archive Creation
##tar -cvjf $archive_file $input_files