Re: Best compressed archive_command on Linux?

I am running my system with the logs going into a dated directory.  Then each night, I have a cron job that tars up the previous days directory.

Here is my script for the archive_command:
#!/bin/bash
echo "start" >> ~/archive_log_timings
date >> ~/archive_log_timings

source /home/postgres/etc/postgres.profile

## setup variables
archiveFile=$1                  ## full path with filename to be archived
archiveFileName=$2              ## the file name to be archived
serverPort=$3                   ## port the server is running on
serverName=`/bin/hostname`      ## the name of this machine
returnValue=0                   ## Set the return code to success ( 1 for failur
e)
DATE=`/bin/date +%Y%m%d`
fullArchiveDir=`echo ${archiveBaseDir}/${serverName}/${serverPort}/pg_xlog_arch/
${DATE}`

## make sure the mount point is available
if [ ! -d $archiveBaseDir ]
then
  returnValue=1
  echo "`/bin/hostname` missing directory $archiveBaseDir" | mail -s "URGENT DB
ISSUE" $DBAPAGER
  sleep 300
else
  ## make sure the proper directory tree exists.  If not build it.
  mkdir -p $fullArchiveDir

  ## get an md5sum of the original file
  originalMD5=`md5sum $archiveFile| awk '{print $1}'`
 
  ## copy of file to the new location
  cp -i ${archiveFile} ${fullArchiveDir}/.  < /dev/null

  ## get an md5sum of the copied file
  copiedMD5=`md5sum ${fullArchiveDir}/$archiveFileName | awk '{print $1}'`

  ## see if the sums match
  if [ "$originalMD5" = "$copiedMD5" ]
  then

    ## remove the file from the current archive save directory
    currentArchiveDir=`echo ${archiveBaseDir}/${serverName}/${serverPort}/curren
t_log`
    rm ${currentArchiveDir}/$archiveFileName ##2>/dev/null

    ###bzip2 ${fullArchiveDir}/$archiveFileName
    returnValue=0
  else
    returnValue=1
    echo "`/bin/hostname` - LOG ARCHIVE FAILED - `date`" | mail -s "URGENT DB IS
SUE" $DBAPAGER
    sleep 300
  fi
fi
echo "done" >> ~/archive_log_timings
date >> ~/archive_log_timings
exit $returnValue
----

Here is my tar command in cron:
cd /postgresql/<port>/pg_xlog_arch/archive/<hostname>/<port>/pg_xlog_arch/
/usr/bin/find . -type d -mtime +1 |
        /bin/sort |
        /bin/sed 's/\.\///' |
        while read DIR
                do
                        /bin/tar -cvzf ${DIR}.tar.gz $DIR
                        /bin/rm -r $DIR
        done

I think the tar script could use some further refinement, but for now it works.

Chris