GZIP(1) BSD General Commands Manual GZIP(1)NAMEgzip — compression/decompression tool using Lempel-Ziv coding (LZ77)
SYNOPSISgzip [-cdfhlNnqrtVv] [-S suffix] file [file [...]]
gunzip [-cfhNqrtVv] [-S suffix] file [file [...]]
zcat [-fhV] file [file [...]]
DESCRIPTION
The gzip program compresses and decompresses files using Lempel-Ziv cod‐
ing (LZ77). If no files are specified, gzip will compress from standard
input, or decompress to standard output. When in compression mode, each
file will be replaced with another file with the suffix, set by the -S
suffix option, added, if possible. In decompression mode, each file will
be checked for existence, as will the file with the suffix added.
If invoked as gunzip then the -d option is enabled. If invoked as zcat
or gzcat then both the -c and -d options are enabled.
This version of gzip is also capable of decompressing files compressed
using compress(1) or bzip2(1).
OPTIONS
The following options are available:
-1, --fast
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
-7
-8
-9, --best These options change the compression level used, with
the -1 option being the fastest, with less compression,
and the -9 option being the slowest, with optimal com‐
pression. The default compression level is 6.
-c, --stdout, --to-stdout
This option specifies that output will go to the stan‐
dard output stream, leaving files intact.
-d, --decompress, --uncompress
This option selects decompression rather than compres‐
sion.
-f, --force This option turns on force mode. This allows files
with multiple links, overwriting of pre-existing files,
reading from or writing to a terminal, and when com‐
bined with the -c option, allowing non-compressed data
to pass through unchanged.
-h, --help This option prints a usage summary and exits.
-l, --list This option displays information about the file's com‐
pressed and uncompressed size, ratio, uncompressed
name. With the -v option, it also displays the com‐
pression method, CRC, date and time embedded in the
file.
-N, --name This option causes the stored filename in the input
file to be used as the output file.
-n, --no-name This option stops the filename and timestamp from being
stored in the output file.
-q, --quiet With this option, no warnings or errors are printed.
-r, --recursive This option is used to gzip the files in a directory
tree individually, using the fts(3) library.
-S suffix, --suffix suffix
This option changes the default suffix from .gz to
suffix.
-t, --test This option will test compressed files for integrity.
-V, --version This option prints the version of the gzip program.
-v, --verbose This option turns on verbose mode, which prints the
compression ratio for each file compressed.
ENVIRONMENT
If the environment variable GZIP is set, it is parsed as a white-space
separated list of options handled before any options on the command line.
Options on the command line will override anything in GZIP.
SEE ALSObzip2(1), compress(1), xz(1), fts(3), zlib(3)HISTORY
The gzip program was originally written by Jean-loup Gailly, licensed
under the GNU Public Licence. Matthew R. Green wrote a simple front end
for NetBSD 1.3 distribution media, based on the freely re-distributable
zlib library. It was enhanced to be mostly feature-compatible with the
original GNU gzip program for NetBSD 2.0.
This manual documents NetBSD gzip version 20040427.
AUTHORS
This implementation of gzip was written by Matthew R. Green
⟨mrg@eterna.com.au⟩.
BSD June 18, 2011 BSD