Name
compress
Synopsis
compress [options
] [files
]
Reduces the size of one or more files
using adaptive Lempel-Ziv coding and move to file
.Z. Restore with uncompress or zcat.
With a filename of -, or with no files
, compress reads standard input.
Unisys claims a patent on the algorithm used by compress. Today, gzip is generally preferred for file compression.
compress doesn’t preserve resource forks or HFS metadata when compressing files that contain them.
Options
-
-b
n
Limit the number of bits in coding to
n
;n
is 9–16; 16 is the default. A lowern
produces a larger, less densely compressed file.- -c
Write to the standard output (don’t change files).
- -f
Compress unconditionally; i.e., don’t prompt before overwriting files. Also, compress files even if the resulting file would actually be larger.
- -v
Print the resulting percentage of reduction for
files
.
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