Linux in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition

Name

gzip

Synopsis

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

Compress specified files (or 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.

-a, --ascii

ASCII text mode: convert end-of-lines using local conventions. This option is supported only on some non-Unix systems.

-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 would normally prompt 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 ...