linux:shell: /bin/tar: Argument list too long

When you create a tar archive and have an error: /bin/tar: Argument list too long, then you could try an argument of tar:

-T or --files-from=F

(which allows you to get names to extract or create from file F).

Linux:compress: restrictions about zipped tar files

From the tar's user guide:
Notice also, that there are several restrictions on operations on compressed archives. First of all, compressed archives cannot be modified, i.e., you cannot update (--update (-u)) them or delete (--delete) members from them. Likewise, you cannot append another tar archive to a compressed archive using --append (-r)). Secondly, multi-volume archives cannot be compressed.