Serverside compression?

Making zip on the server

[guangke]

Is it possible to zip or tar a directory on a virtual host?

I want to make a backup of my homepage directory, but using ftp takes a lot of time (its a big cms installation).

Im looking for some software to make a compressed file on the webserver. Then I can transfer to compressed file via ftp.

I use php/mysql.

[MichaelBluejay]

Are you on a Unix box and do you have shell access? If so, then Unix has the zip compression program built in:

zip targetfile sourcefile

[guangke]

I dont have shell access.