gzip Command Examples

Compress/uncompress files with gzip compression (LZ77). More information: https://www.gnu.org/software/gzip/manual/gzip.html.

• Compress a file, replacing it with a gzip archive:

gzip {{path/to/file}}

• Decompress a file, replacing it with the original uncompressed version:

gzip {{[-d|--decompress]}} {{path/to/file.gz}}

• Compress a file, keeping the original file:

gzip {{[-k|--keep]}} {{path/to/file}}

• Compress a file, specifying the output filename:

gzip {{[-c|--stdout]}} {{path/to/file}} > {{path/to/compressed_file.gz}}

• Decompress a gzip archive specifying the output filename:

gzip {{[-c|--stdout]}} {{[-d|--decompress]}} {{path/to/file.gz}} > {{path/to/uncompressed_file}}

• Specify the compression level. 1 is the fastest (low compression), 9 is the slowest (high compression), 6 is the default:

gzip -{{1..9}} {{[-c|--stdout]}} {{path/to/file}} > {{path/to/compressed_file.gz}}

• Display the name and reduction percentage for each file compressed or decompressed:

gzip {{[-v|--verbose]}} {{[-d|--decompress]}} {{path/to/file.gz}}