Mine

#!/bin/bash

#The only variable is target1.  Here we configure what should be in the
#root tar ball
target1="bin cdrom etc home lib mnt root tmp boot dev floppy sbin usr"

#Clear out the old images
rm /var/images/*.tar

#Making var first as we don't want the images in the var tar file.
cd /var
tar -cp * >/web/var.tar
mv /web/var.tar /var/images

#Make root
cd /
tar cfp /var/images/root.tar $target1