What are some best practices for creating a PHP script to pack files into a tar.gz format?

When creating a PHP script to pack files into a tar.gz format, it is important to use the appropriate functions provided by PHP for handling file compression. One common approach is to use the `PharData` class in PHP, which allows you to create a tar archive and compress it into a gzip file. By using this class, you can easily pack multiple files into a single tar.gz archive in a straightforward manner.

<?php
// Define the directory and files to be packed
$directory = '/path/to/files';
$files = ['file1.txt', 'file2.txt', 'file3.txt'];

// Create a new PharData archive
$archive = new PharData('archive.tar');

// Add files to the archive
foreach ($files as $file) {
    $archive->addFile($directory . '/' . $file);
}

// Compress the archive into a gzip file
$archive->compress(Phar::GZ);

// Rename the archive to tar.gz format
rename('archive.tar', 'archive.tar.gz');
?>