Command to compress a file

Linux and Unix-Like Red Hat
1

Hi,

When we want to compress a file which is of huge size then what command is best for us.Kindly suggest on this.

1.Tar command or
2.gzip command

OS -- Linux 2.6

Regards,
Maddy

2

tar is an archive tool not a compressing tool, but we do happen to use tar with compression tools, and so we know change also the suffix like .tar.gz or .tgz

3

For just one file we do not need an archive (tar = tape archive).
Go for gzip! (To be unpacked with gunzip)
Alternative: bzip2 (Better compression but much longer compression time. To be unpacked with bunzip2)

4

2 Examples, of which each:

  1. line will archieve/compress all files in current dir.
  2. line will extract the archieve to current dir.
tar -acf tarball.tar.gz *
tar -axf tarball.tar.gz

gzip *
gunzip *gz

NOTE: g(un)zip will actualy change the file, and not create a new file which is (un-)compressed!

Hope this helps

5

I use "compress" command in Linux, it does a good job.

6

compress is a very old-fashioned compressor which is liable to make output larger than its input under certain circumstances.

7

Thank you all for your inputs.