Moving a website - which is the best way?

[joomlales]

I am going to be moving a website to a new host. I want to compress the entire contents of public_html. This would include lots of subdirectories. Is GZIP (http://www.computerhope.com/unix/uzcat.htm) the best way to do it? And if so, what command string should I use? I'd guess, but I am worried to miss (muck up) something. Something like gzip * -r?

Les  

[Rob Pomeroy]

Does the new host provide a shell account?  tar zcf archive.tgz directory should provide you with what you need.  On the new host, tar zxf archive.tgz will extract the archive.