Question: I want to archive 3 folders, given their names in Ubuntu command prompt.  

When I use `tar -c abc tt zz` -> it will do nothing.

Answer: 
You either need to redirect that output to your tarball name as in:

```
tar -c abc tt zz > tarball.tar

```

(Careful, that will overwrite tarball.tar if it's already there) or you need to use the `-f` flag for tar and specify a filename as in:

```
tar -cf tarball.tar abc tt zz

```
You can use [this](http://discussion.accuwebhosting.com/linux-server-commands/681-tar-command-how-tar-un-tar-zip-unzip-folder-linux-command.html) command

```
 tar -cvzf tarname.tar.gz a b c

```

eg:

```
x@x:/tmp/aas$ touch a b c
x@x:/tmp/aas$ ls
a  b  c
x@x:/tmp/aas$ tar cvzf tarname.tar.gz a b c
a
b
c
x@x:/tmp/aas$ ls
a  b  c  tarname.tar.gz
x@x:/tmp/aas$ rm a b c
x@x:/tmp/aas$ ls
tarname.tar.gz
x@x:/tmp/aas$ gunzip -c tarname.tar.gz | tar xvf -
a
b
c
x@x:/tmp/aas$ ls
a  b  c  tarname.tar.gz
x@x:/tmp/aas$ 

```