Linux Pocket Guide

File Compression and Packaging

gzip	Compress files with GNU Zip
gunzip	Uncompress GNU Zip files
compress	Compress files with traditional Unix compression
uncompress	Uncompress files with traditional Unix compression
zcat	Compress/uncompress file via standard input/output (gzip or compress)
bzip2	Compress files in BZip format
bunzip2	Uncompress BZip files
zip	Compress files in Windows Zip format
unzip	Uncompress Windows Zip files
uuencode	Convert file to uuencoded format
uudecode	Unconvert file from uuencoded format

Linux can compress files into a variety of formats and uncompress them. The most popular format is GNU Zip (gzip), whose compressed files are named with the .gz suffix. Other commonly found formats are classic Unix compression (.Z suffix), bzip2 compression (.bz2 suffix) and Zip files from Windows systems (.zip suffix).

A related technology involves converting binary files into textual formats, so they can (say) be transmitted within an email message. Nowadays this is done automatically with attachments and MIME tools, but we’ll cover the older uuencode and uudecode programs, which do still get used.

If you come across a format we don’t cover, such as Macintosh hqx/sit files, Arc, Zoo, and others, you can learn more at http://www.faqs.org/faqs/compression-faq/part1/section-2.html and http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-lw-comp.html