Linux in a Nutshell, 6th Edition

Name

gzip

Synopsis

gzip [options] [files]
gunzip [options] [files]
zcat [options] [files]

Compress specified files (or data read from standard input) with Lempel-Ziv coding (LZ77). Rename compressed file to filename.gz; keep ownership modes and access/modification times. Ignore symbolic links. Uncompress with gunzip, which takes all of gzip’s options except those specified. zcat is identical to gunzip -c and takes the options -fhLV, described here. Files compressed with the compress command can be decompressed using these commands.

Options

-n, --fast, --best

Regulate the speed of compression using the specified digit n, where −1 or --fast indicates the fastest compression method (less compression), and −9 or --best indicates the slowest compression method (most compression). The default compression level is −6.

-c, --stdout, --to-stdout

Print output to standard output, and do not change input files.

-d, --decompress, --uncompress

Same as gunzip.

-f, --force

Force compression. gzip normally prompts for permission to continue when the file has multiple links, its .gz version already exists, or it is reading compressed data to or from a terminal.

-h, --help

Display a help screen and then exit.

-l, --list

Expects to be given compressed files as arguments. Files may be compressed by any of the following methods: gzip, deflate, compress, lzh, or pack. For each file, list uncompressed and compressed sizes (the former is always −1 for files compressed by programs other than gzip), compression ratio, and ...