dar makes 2 things easier for me: 1) Incremental backups with only a small 'catalog' as the reference instead of having to have the full backup available 2) E

dar makes 2 things easier for me: 1) Incremental backups with only a small 'catalog' as the reference instead of having to have the full backup available 2) Ease of splitting the backup set over multiple devices with the ability to unmount the device in the middle of a backup once it is full to mount a new volume. These things can be done with tar, but not without some extra work.