NDG Linux Essentials: Chapter 9

bunzip2 -c

(bzip2) decompresses the file and sends the output to the screen

gzip -d

(gzip) decompress a file

gzip -l

(gzip) shows compression ratio

tar -j

(tar) compress, or decompress, an archive using the bzip2 command.

tar -z

(tar) compress, or decompress, an archive using the gzip command.

tar -c

(tar) create an archive

tar -x

(tar) extract files from an archive

tar -t

(tar) list files in the archive

tar -v

(tar) verbosely list the files processed

zip -r

(zip) indicates recursion and behaves like the tar command

Archiving

Combines multiple files into one, which eliminates the overhead in individual files and makes the files easier to transmit.

zip

Command used to archive and compress files. The primary archiving utility in Microsoft.

bzip2

Command used to compress and decompress files using the Burrows-Wheeler compression algorithm.

gzip

Command used to compress and decompress files using the Lempel-Ziv compression algorithm.

xz (unxz)

Command used to compress and decompress files using the Lempel-Ziv-Markov compression algorithm.

tar

Command used to create, extract, and view archive files. The traditional UNIX archiving utility.

unzip

Command used to list and extract files from ZIP archives.

Lossy Compression

Information might be removed from the file. It is compressed in such a way that uncompressing a file will result in a file that is slightly different from the original. Often benefits media because it results in smaller file sizes and people can't tell the difference between the original and the version with the changed data.

Compression

Makes the files smaller by removing redundant information. Reduces the amount of data needed to store or transmit a file while storing it in such a way that the file can be restored.

Lossless Compression

No information is removed from the file. Compressing a file and decompressing it leaves something identical to the original. For things that must remain intact, such as documents, logs, and software, you need lossless compression.

tar -f ARCHIVE

Operate on the given archive; It is important to keep the -f flag at the end, as tar assumes whatever follows this option is a file name.

zip [OPTIONS] [zipfile [file...]]

The first argument zipfile is the name of the archive to be created, after that, a list of files to be added.

Lempel-Ziv-Markov (LZMA)

a chain algorithm that can result in lower decompression CPU times

Burrows-Wheeler

a compression algorithm that can compress files smaller than gzip at the expense of more CPU time

compression algorithm

a procedure used to encode the file and make it smaller

Decompress

also called un-archiving; one or more files are extracted

unzip -l

lists files in .zip archives