Utilities to compress and uncompress files in Linux

Utilities to compress and uncompress files in Linux

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Utilities to compress and uncompress files in Linux

In this article, it is intended to discuss the following utilities that are used to compress and uncompress files in Linux:

• TAR


• GZIP & GUNZIP


• BZIP2 & BUNZIP2

TAR

The TAR (Tape Archive) utility was originally designed for tape backups. It is used to create a TAR file anywhere on the filesystem. The TAR utility does not compress files, but it creates one TAR file out of several files and directories and keeps their absolute path information if required. Hence, a TAR file takes the same amount of space as that of all the individual files (and folders) combined. However, a TAR file can be compressed by using the GZIP or BZIP2 utility.

Syntax

TAR -switch(es) <filename>, where <filename> is the name of the TAR file.

Some important switches used with the TAR command are as follows:

Switches	Description
X	It is used to extract the contents of a TAR file.
C	It is used to create a TAR file.
Z	It is used to uncompress a compressed TAR file before extracting.
v	It is used to display the contents while creating a TAR file or extracting from it.
t	It is used to list all the contents of a TAR file.

GZIP & GUNZIP

GZIP and GUNZIP are GNU file compression and decompression utilities. The files that are compressed by GZIP have a .gz extension. If a TAR file is compressed by the GZIP command, the file will have the .tgz extension.

Compressing files with the GZIP command: To compress a file, use the GZIP command as shown below:


GZIP <filename.txt>
where <filename.txt> is the name of the file to be compressed.



After using the command, a file named filename.txt.gz will be created. By default, the GZIP command will delete the filename.txt file.

Uncompressing files with the GUNZIP command: To uncompress a GZIP file, execute the following command:


GUNZIP <filename.txt.gz>
where <filename.txt.gz> is the name of the file to be uncompressed.

After using the command, a file named filename.txt will be created. By default, the GUNZIP command will delete the filename.txt.gz file.

BZIP2 & BUNZIP2

BZIP2 and BUNZIP2 are newer file compression and decompression utilities than GZIP and GUNZIP. The BZIP2 utility maintains greater compression ratios than GZIP to keep the size of compressed file lower. A BZIP2 file can be 10-20 percent smaller than the same file zipped with the GZIP utility. Files that have been compressed by BZIP2 have a .bz2 extension.

BZIP2 and BUNZIP2 are not as common yet, but they are rapidly gaining popularity.

Compressing files with the BZIP command: To compress a file, use the BZIP command as shown below:


BZIP2 <filename.txt>
where <filename.txt> is the name of the file to be compressed.


After using the command, a file named filename.txt.bz2 will be created. By default, the BZIP command will delete the filename.txt file.

Uncompressing files with the BUNZIP command: To uncompress a BZIP file, execute the following command:


BUNZIP2 <filename.txt.bz2>
where <filename.txt.bz2> is the name of the file to be uncompressed.

After using the command, a file named filename.txt will be created. By default, the BUNZIP command will delete the filename.txt.bz2 file.

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