bzexe

Compress an executable file in place

$ bzexe [path/to/executable]

$ bzexe [executable1] [executable2]

$ bzexe -d [path/to/executable]

bzexe [-d] file...

bzexe compresses executable files in place, creating self-extracting executables that automatically decompress and run when executed. The original file is saved with a tilde (~) suffix as a backup.
When a compressed executable is run, it transparently decompresses itself to a temporary location and executes. This trades execution speed for disk space savings, making it useful on systems with limited storage.
For example, compressing /bin/cat creates:
- /bin/cat - the self-decompressing executable
- /bin/cat~ - the original uncompressed binary (backup)

-d

Decompress the specified executables instead of compressing them

The compressed executable is implemented as a shell script, which may create security concerns. It relies on the PATH environment variable to find bzip2 and utilities like tail, chmod, ln, and sleep.
File attributes may not be perfectly preserved. You may need to manually fix permissions using chmod or ownership using chown after compression.
The backup file (with ~ suffix) can be removed once the compressed executable is verified to work correctly.

bzip2(1), bunzip2(1), gzexe(1)