Using `tar` for Copying Across the Network

I like this suggestion for using tar to copy over the network. I think it’d even be safe to add compression to this command.

http://serverfault.com/a/18142/121200 from linux - How to copy a large number of files quickly between two servers - Server Fault

e.g.

tar -c /path/to/dir | ssh remote_server 'tar -xvf - -C /absolute/path/to/remotedir'

instead of

rsync -avW -e ssh /path/to/dir/ remote_server:/path/to/remotedir