cbell@circe:~/tmp$ touch file
cbell@circe:~/tmp$ ls -l
total 0
-rw-r--r-- 1 cbell cbell 0 Oct 16 19:10 file
cbell@circe:~/tmp$ chmod 600 file
cbell@circe:~/tmp$ ls -l
total 0
-rw------- 1 cbell cbell 0 Oct 16 19:10 file
cbell@circe:~/tmp$ tar cvpf file.tar file
file
cbell@circe:~/tmp$ ls -l
total 12
-rw------- 1 cbell cbell     0 Oct 16 19:10 file
-rw-r--r-- 1 cbell cbell 10240 Oct 16 19:11 file.tar
cbell@circe:~/tmp$