gistfile1.txt

$ ls -la db.sqlite
-rw-rw-r-- 1 hpk hpk 56172544 Jul 17 15:02 db.sqlite
$ time tar cf ~/Downloads/DC-backup-hpk.tar db.sqlite db.sqlite-blobs/
real	0m17.269s
user	0m0.292s
sys	0m2.268s
$ ls -lah ~/Downloads/DC-backup-hpk.tar
-rw-rw-r-- 1 hpk hpk 1,8G Jul 17 15:14 /home/hpk/Downloads/DC-backup-hpk.tar

Exporting via desktop, took 68 seconds

2020-07-17T13:15:24.001Z	core/event            	INFO		"DC_EVENT_INFO"	0	"src/imex.rs:370: Import/export process started."
[... housekeeping was 1 seconds, otherwise lots of file copies into the DB]
2020-07-17T13:16:32.766Z	core/event            	INFO		"DC_EVENT_INFO"	0	"src/imex.rs:394: IMEX successfully completed"
2020-07-17T13:16:32.767Z	core/event            	DEBUG		"DC_EVENT_IMEX_PROGRESS"	1000	0


Importing the Desktop-exported file took 48 seconds (or 58 seconds) and peak >1GB RSS RAM

Importing the tar file took 13 seconds on the same machine


GZIP of tar file: 1.72GB, compared to 1.84GB original