The tar command

Hello
I know this is a newbie forum but this is still kind of embarrassing.

I've read the man and --help pages - but either I don't understand them or I can't find the answer or I am completely thick (probably the latter).

I am trying to tar a big directory.
It's about 80Mb of web folders, scripts, web-pages etc.

When I try to tar the folder, I get an error

Code:

---

Error exit delayed from previous errors.

---

So, I'm trying to get the data into a log file.
To which end, I'm typing this....

Code:

---

tar -zcvf destination.tar.gz myfolder>fred.log>fred.err

---

but I'm getting the same error...

Also the log file doesn't tell me where the process went wrong - or what the errors are.

Code:

---

Error exit delayed from previous errors.

---

The problem is.... the files go flying past my screen so quickly - that I can't see where the error occurs.


Is there a way of 'trapping' the error?
Is there a way of getting the error into a log file perhaps?

Any help appreciated :)

Code:

---

tar -cfzv <tar file name> <directory>

---

Edit: to send output to a file, use

Code:

---

tar -cfzv <tar file name> <directory> > ~/error.log

---