how do i "zip/tar/gz" a folder recursivly and turn it into a tar.gz?

You do :

zip -r file.zip /opt/somefolder

1. tar –cvf blabla.tar my_dir/

2. gzip blabla.tar

(and to unzip : gunzip blabla.tar.gz and then tar –xvf blabla.tar )

You can also do all in a single command :

tar –zcvf blabla.tgz my_dir

(and to unzip & open you do : tar –zxvf blabla.tgz)