Linux Pocket Guide, 2nd Edition

Name

gzip — stdin  stdout  - file  -- opt  --help  --version

Synopsis

gzip [options] [files]

gzip and gunzip compress and uncompress files in GNU Zip format. Compressed files have the suffix .gz.

Sample commands

gzip file	Compress file to create file.gz. Original file is deleted.
gzip -c file	Produce compressed data on standard output.
cat file | gzip	Produce compressed data from a pipeline.
gunzip file.gz	Uncompress file.gz to create file. Original file.gz is deleted.
gunzip -c file.gz	Uncompress the data on standard output.
cat file.gz | gunzip	Uncompress the data from a pipeline.
zcat file.gz	Uncompress the data on standard output.

gzipped tar files: sample commands

tar -czf myfile.tar.gz dirname	Pack directory dirname.
tar -tzf myfile.tar.gz	List contents.
tar -xzf myfile.tar.gz	Unpack.

Add the -v option to tar to print filenames as they are processed.