as always: imho (!)

tar is great, and well kown - but not particularly for "incremental backups over the net" ...

this is what rsync is/was for.

idk ... whatever the problem is with rsync, but apparently thats none of my business ;))

you could use, and which usage is very similar to rsync:

rclone

* https://rclone.org/

intro

* https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2025/4x-faster-network-fil...

and additionally its also faster than rsync ...

just my 0.02€

    -g, --listed-incremental=FILE