gzip

Compress a file, replacing it with a gzip archive

$ gzip [path/to/file]

$ gzip [[-d|--decompress]] [path/to/file.gz]

$ gzip [[-v|--verbose]] [path/to/file.gz]

$ gzip [[-k|--keep]] [path/to/file]

$ gzip [[-c|--stdout]] [path/to/file] > [path/to/compressed_file.gz]

$ gzip [[-cd|--stdout --decompress]] [path/to/file.gz] > [path/to/uncompressed_file]

$ gzip -[1..9] [[-c|--stdout]] [path/to/file] > [path/to/compressed_file.gz]

$ gzip [[-l|--list]] [path/to/file.txt.gz]

gzip [options] [file ...]
gzip [-d | -l | -t] [options] [file ...]

-1
    Fastest compression method

-2
    Faster compression

-3
    Moderate compression speed

-4
    Slightly better compression

-5
    Moderate compression (default is 6)

-6
    Default compression level

-7
    Good compression

-8
    Higher compression

-9
    Maximum (slowest) compression

-c
    Output to stdout, keep originals

-d
    Decompress

-f
    Force overwrite/compression

-h
    Display help

-k
    Keep original files

-l
    List compressed file info

-L
    Display license

-n
    No name/crc in header

-N
    Use original name/mod time

-q
    Quiet mode

-r
    Recursive on directories

-S suffix
    Use custom suffix (default .gz)

-t
    Test integrity

-v
    Verbose output

-V
    Version info

The gzip command is a standard Unix utility for compressing and decompressing files using the gzip algorithm, which employs the DEFLATE method combining LZ77 and Huffman coding for efficient lossless compression. It replaces the input file with a compressed version ending in .gz, reducing file sizes significantly for text and certain binary data.

Common uses include archiving logs, backups, and web content delivery. When compressing multiple files or directories, pair it with tar (as tar -czf). Decompression is handled via gunzip or gzip -d. It supports levels from 1 (fastest, least compression) to 9 (slowest, best), defaulting to 6.

gzip preserves file permissions and timestamps, making it ideal for backups. It's part of the GNU project, widely available on Linux/Unix systems, and outperforms older compress while being backward-compatible with formats like PKZIP.

Does not create multi-file archives (use tar); symlinks compressed as files unless -r; high levels (9) CPU-intensive; no encryption.

gzip file.txt → file.txt.gz
gzip -c file.txt > file.txt.gz (stdout)
tar -czf archive.tar.gz dir/ (with tar)

Use -1/-9 for speed vs size; test with gzip -t; decompress faster than compress.

Developed 1992-1993 by Jean-loup Gailly as GNU replacement for Unix compress; uses zlib library; version 1.0 released 1993; evolved with gzip 1.2.4 (2009) adding long options, now standard in POSIX.

gunzip(1), zcat(1), zless(1), tar(1), bzip2(1), xz(1)