Linux Gunzip files compression

I was searching high and low for the above to be done on one of the linux box but couldn't find any hint. Below is the method to accomplish the task:

1. tar cvf filename.tar files
2. gzip filename.tar

The output will be filename.tar.gz. In order to uncompress the file, below should do the job:

gunzip < filename.tar.gz | cpio -icvdum

Happy compressing~