General :: How To Determine What File Tripped Up Tar Process

I am writing, well actually enhancing, a script to do a daily backup of important data on my PC to a second hard drive.I wish to tar my home directory to a single file - and will probably use gzip as well.So I decided to work out the correct tar syntax in a terminal first - here is what happened.I opened a terminal window.I cd to a directory not part of my home directory.I issued the command..Quote: tar -cvf mytar.tar /home/ken tar processed a bunch of files, the last being .netrc.I examined the tar file and it contains .netrc.The contents of .netrc are correct.I scrolled back through the list of files in the terminal window and do not see any error messages.I guess the question is... how do I determine what file tripped up the tar process?