tar -zcvf packagename.tar.gz path_to_directory

##</code><code>##

find path1/* path2/* -exec gzip {} \;

##</code><code>##

...
my @paths = qw! /usr/home/blah  /usr/home/foo !;
system("/usr/bin/find $_/* -exec gzip {} \\;") for @paths;
...