Our server has large publisher files, so we backup with following command:
tar czf $bakname --exclude 'bu?.*' --exclude '*.?BK' --exclude '_Q*'
--exclude '*.pub' /home/* /etc/*

I need to backup the publisher files, so I tried:
tar czf /usr/backup/publisher.tar.gz /home/*.pub

No files are found. What am I doing wrong?

"locate .pub" finds 100 files

Dear schmerold,

Let me begin by noting that if you want to find all .pub files found
recursively under /home, you should use the following command.

  find /home -name "*.pub"

Because some of the returned filenames may contain spaces, you can't
feed them directly to the tar command. Instead, you should pipe them
into a temporary file whose name you subsequently pass to tar.

If you can write to the directory /usr/backup, execute

  find /home -name "*.pub" > /usr/backup/found.txt

followed by

  tar cvfz /usr/backup/publisher.tar.gz -T /usr/backup/found.txt

to achieve the desired effect.

You can enter both commands on a single line, if you insist, by
separating them with a semicolon. It would make an awfully long line,
though. There's no harm in separating the procedure into a pair of
lines.

If any part of my answer is unclear or incorrect, please let me know
with a Clarification Request so that I have the opportunity to fully
meet your needs before you assign a rating.

Regards,

leapinglizard

one of the easiest ways to do this would be 

tar czvf filename.tar.gz `locate .pub`
the `` will execute the command and pass the results into the command
line, which will effectively back all the .pub files for you on the
server.

Close, but this solution needs something more. We get long list of
errors due to the spaces in the file names:
tar: Booklet.pub: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: /home/data/PUBS/Publisher: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Files/Funeral: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Service: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Bulletins/deuschle1.pub: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: /home/data/PUBS/Publisher: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Files/Funeral: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Service: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Bulletins/politsch.pub: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: /home/data/PUBS/Publisher: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Files/Funeral: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Service: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Bulletins/Winter: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: James.pub: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: /home/data/PUBS/Publisher: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Files/Semi: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Annual: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Report/2004: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Semi: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Annual: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Report/Annual: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Report: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Sample.pub: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: /home/data/PUBS/Publisher: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Files/Construction: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Campaign: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: 2005/2004-2005: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Share: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: the: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Vision: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Campaign/Share: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: the: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Vision: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Pledge: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: card.pub: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: /home/PRIVATE/steenomc/WEDDING/wedding: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: booklet.rev.june: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: 2000.doc.pub: Cannot stat: No such file or directory

You have spaces in your filenames :).
http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2004-06/msg00138.html might be a
solution, using xargs. or the -T option.

This is a free comment.