tool, compression GNU compression utility. Gzip reduces
restored to their original form using gzip -d or gunzip or
zcat.
The Unix "
compress" utility is patented (by two separate
patents, in fact) and is thus shunned by the GNU Project since
to compress better anyway. All compressed files in the
GNUformat and their names end in ".gz" (as opposed to
"compress"-compressed files, which end in ".Z").
Gzip can uncompress "compress"-compressed files and "pack"
files (which end in ".z"). The decompression algorithms are
not patented, only compression is.
shar,
tar, or gzipped tar format (for those who already
have a prior version of gzip and want faster data
transmission). It works on virtually every
Unix system,