Unix and Linux: Visual QuickStart Guide, Fourth Edition

Chapter 13. Working with Encoded and Compressed Files

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• Encoding files

• Decoding files

• Archiving files

• Unarchiving files

• Compressing files

• Uncompressing files

• Zipping single files

• Unzipping single files

• Zipping multiple files and directories

• Unzipping multiple files and directories

• Combining commands

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As you use Unix, you will likely encounter encoded or compressed files and have to extract, unencode, encode, or otherwise manipulate the files to be able to view or use them. This chapter discusses ways of encoding and compressing files.

Encoding Files with uuencode

You’ll use encoding whenever you’re sending a binary file (a nontext file) through e-mail. Although many e-mail programs will take care of encoding ...