Learn how to compress and archive your files

gzip

• The gzip program is used to compress one or more files. When executed, it replaces the original file with a compressed version of the original.
• Usage: gzip [OPTION]... [FILE]...
• Use the -c flag to write on stdout, keep original files unchnged. With this we can redirect the output to a seperate file.
• Use the -d flag to uncompress files compressed using gzip. We can also use gunzip program for this.
• Examples:
  • gzip file.txt
  • gzip -c file.txt > f.gz
  • gzip -d file.txt.gz

gunzip

• It performs the same action as the -d flag in gzip. It is used to uncompress files compressed by gzip.
• Usage: gunzip [OPTION]... [FILE]...
• Use the -c flag to write on stdout, keep original files unchnged. With this we can redirect the output to a seperate file.
• Examples:
  • gunzip file.txt.gz
  • gunzip -c file.txt.gz > file.dat

bzip2

• The bzip2 program, by Julian Seward, is similar to gzip but uses a different compression algorithm that achieves higher levels of compression at the cost of compression speed.
• Usage: bzip2 [flags and input files in any order]
• Use the -d flag to uncompress files compressed using bzip2. We can also use bunzip2 program for this.
• Use -1 for fast compression.
• Use -9 for best compression.
• Use the -c flag to write on stdout, keep original files unchnged. With this we can redirect the output to a seperate file.
• bzip2 also comes with the bzip2recover program, which will try to recover damaged .bz2 files.
• Examples:
  • bzip2 -9 file.txt
  • bzip2 -1 -c file.txt > f.bz2
  • bzip2 -d file.txt.bz2

bunzip2

• It performs the same action as the -d flag in bzip2. It is used to uncompress files compressed by bzip2.
• Usage: gunzip [OPTION]... [FILE]...
• Use the -c flag to write on stdout, keep original files unchnged. With this we can redirect the output to a seperate file.
• Examples:
  • bunzip2 file.txt.bz2
  • bunzip2 -c file.txt.bz2 > file.dat

Archiving files

• Archiving is the process of gathering up many files and bundling them together into a single large file.
• Archiving is often done as part of system backups.

tar

• the tar program is the classic tool for archiving files. Its name, short for tape archive, reveals its roots as a tool for making backup tapes.
• Usage: tar [options] pathname...
• Use the -c flag to create archives.
• Use the -f flag to specify the archive name.
• Use the -t flag to list the contents of an archive.
• Use the -x flag to extract all the files from the archive.
• Examples:
  • tar -cf archive.tar foo bar
  • tar -tvf archive.tar
  • tar -xf archive.tar

zip

• The zip program is both a compression tool and an archiver.
• Usage: zip [options] zipfile file
• Use the -r flag for recursion.
• It is possible to pipe a list of filenames to zip via the -@ option.
• Examples:
  • zip -r playground.zip playground
  • find playground -name "file-A" | zip -@ file-A.zip

unzip

• It is used to extract files from zip archive.
• Usage: unzip [OPTIONS] ziparchive
• Example:
  • unzip test.zip

rsync

• This program can synchronize both local and remote directories by using the rsync remote-update protocol, which allows rsync to quickly detect the differences between two directories and perform the minimum amount of copying required to bring them into sync.
• Usage: rsync [OPTIONS] source destination
• Either the source or destination should be local, remote to remote is not supported.
• Examples:
  • sudo rsync -av --delete /etc /home /usr/local /media/BigDisk/backup
  • rsync -av –delete rsync://archive.linux.duke.edu/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/ fedora-devel