Under what circumstances would you archive files using tar?

What will be an ideal response?

The tar command is especially useful when creating large archive files of directories (sometimes
referred to as “tar balls”). Large single files like this can be more easily e-mailed or ftp’d to other
systems without having to send every file individually. While tar can be used to write the files to a
tape device, many people prefer the cpio command for this as it provides more flexibility and
options unique to tape devices.